I-Team: Area 51 whistleblower takes a lie detector test

thirty years ago tonight klas began an

eight-part news series about the weird

world of ufo conspiracies one of the

featured interviews was with a respected

polygraph examiner who became entangled

with ufo lore when he agreed to conduct

a lie detector test on a controversial

whistleblower named bob lazar george

knapp and the i-team caught up with the

polygraph expert three decades later so

this is the same machine you used on

lazar

that's it how many polygraphs do you

think you've done on this machine

terry tavernetti doesn't use his

gleaming polygraph machine anymore

during his many years working in

corporate security at major casino

properties on the las vegas strip he

tested thousands of employees before

that he worked as a police officer in

southern california he had no idea he

and his lie detector might be drawn into

one of the most controversial ufo cases

of all time the claims made by former

government scientist bob lazar yeah i

think so in november 1989 lazar's name

and face were revealed to the public for

the first time in the klas tv news

series lazar's claims about working on

flying saucers at a hidden facility near

area 51 set off a ufo stampede that

continues to this day the job i had the

involvement with the

you know the government cover-up that

sort of thing the story isn't altered in

in any way lazar agreed to a polygraph

test the first one he did was

inconclusive the examiner thought lazar

was so nervous that it was difficult to

get an accurate read on him tabernetti

was recommended he questioned lazar

about the central allegations that he

had seen a flying disc at a base called

s4 that the craft was powered by an

anti-matter reactor and generated its

own gravity to tabernetti's surprise

lazar passed my personal thoughts

the pre-test interview of three and a

half hours the test itself the post-test

interview showed absolutely nothing

to detour my thought that bob was always

truthful tavernetti wasn't a ufo guy had

never polygraphed anyone about that

issue had no core beliefs either way but

30 years later he recalls what was going

through his mind during the test as it

appeared lazar was being truthful is it

occurring to you holy crap this guy

could be telling the truth this paul

could be real oh when that time comes

that is

unbelievable after the first news story

aired about tabernetti's test two

strange things happened the first is he

was called on the carpet by his employer

because of a phone call from an unnamed

federal agency the corporate offices or

unemployed received a telephone call

from a government agency

wanting to know why i was getting

involved in something that

i shouldn't be

and i asked well what agency what was

said did they identify themselves he

never learned which agency had called

there was an internal investigation by

his employer but tabernetti was not

disciplined the second thing to happen

two months after the story aired is

there was a break-in at his home and

these are the charts

huh

the actual charts yeah did somebody try

to steal these from me are there a break

in somebody tried to come and get them

you know

right off the bat i want to say yes but

tabernetti had made copies of the lazar

charts he shared them with colleagues to

see if they agreed with his opinion two

of them did one suggested there should

be more testing tabernetti admits

polygraphs are not foolproof but they

are widely used by police and employers

as useful tools he doesn't regret

getting drawn into the bob lazar saga

and says the experience caused a

permanent change in how he views the ufo

question over the years my

belief

has

swayed that way

it gets to the point now we're going why

not

is it because of that oh yeah

george knapp 8 news now

tavernetti retired a few years ago but

still lives here in las vegas the

original story about his polygraph test

was part of an investigative series that

aired only once starting on this date

back in 1990 but we have resurrected the

stories from our archives and you can

watch them on mysterywire.com