Fired prison employee sues lie detector maker, says voice stress device is no better than a coin flip

A former Arkansas Department of Corrections employee has filed a class action lawsuit against the maker of a voice stress “lie detector” used in ADC employment investigations, claiming the device cost him his job over a false reading.

Melborn Wayne Hogan of Jefferson County was fired from the ADC on or about March 31, 2026, according to the complaint. He says the termination was based in whole or substantial part on a Computerized Voice Stress Analysis exam that labeled him “deceptive.” The lawsuit says the result was false and that Hogan answered every question honestly.

The suit names NITV, LLC and NITV Federal Services, LLC, the Florida companies behind the CVSA device, along with CVSA inventor Charles Humble and unnamed John Doe defendants. It was filed May 5 in Jefferson County Circuit Court by Little Rock attorney Luther Sutter of Sutter & Gillham, P.L.L.C. The defendants removed the case to federal court in Little Rock on Aug. 18, where it is now docketed as Case No. 4:26-cv-00848-BSM.

The complaint attacks the science behind the device. It says decades of independent research, including peer-reviewed studies by Hollien and Harnsberger in 2000 and 2008 and a 2007 Damphousse study, have concluded that voice stress analysis performs no better than random chance at detecting deception. The suit says the Department of Defense has cautioned against using CVSA-type devices and that no peer-reviewed, double-blind study has ever validated the technology.

“An ADC official or correctional officer subjected to examination would not expect a device marketed as a reliable lie detector to perform no better than a coin toss,” the complaint states.

The lawsuit leans heavily on a 2003 federal ruling in California, Crowe v. County of San Diego, where a court refused to dismiss similar claims against NITV. That case grew out of the murder of 12-year-old Stephanie Crowe, in which her teenage brother falsely confessed after a detective told him the CVSA was “97 percent” reliable and “foolproof.” The Arkansas complaint says NITV kept selling and marketing the device to agencies, including the ADC, despite that history and despite at least one prior wrongful termination of an ADC employee based on an erroneous CVSA result.

The complaint alleges NITV trained ADC examiners, including one identified as Joshua Hickey, to treat CVSA results as scientifically valid grounds for firing employees. It says the ADC adopted a practice of using the exams as a basis for discipline, including termination, based on NITV’s accuracy claims.

The proposed class covers all ADC employees over the past three years who took a CVSA exam on an NITV device and were then disciplined, suspended, or fired based in whole or in part on the results. The complaint estimates the class at no fewer than 40 people.

The suit brings claims for products liability, negligence, defamation, false light invasion of privacy, and violations of the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. It seeks compensatory and punitive damages and a court order barring NITV from selling or supporting CVSA devices to any Arkansas correctional or law enforcement agency without prominent disclosure of the research questioning the device’s reliability.

The allegations in the complaint have not been proven in court. NITV has not yet filed a response to the merits of the claims.