Commonwealth v. Read — Trial Archive
Person Gary Faller Trial 1Trial 2Pathologist who testified about Good Samaritan’s clinical blood-alcohol testing ← All People
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Gary Faller

Courtroom still of Gary Faller.

Pathologist who testified about Good Samaritan’s clinical blood-alcohol testing

Trial 1Trial 2
188 lines 7 proceedings 2 trials

About

Gary Faller, a pathologist and former chief of pathology at Good Samaritan Medical Center, testified in both Karen Read trials about the hospital’s blood-alcohol testing. He described its patient-identification and collection procedures, including a policy to use nonalcohol swabs for alcohol blood draws. He testified that Read’s chart recorded a result of 93 milligrams per deciliter from a blood draw on January 29, 2022. He said the hospital did not convert its result to a forensic whole-blood value and agreed that the result did not establish when alcohol was consumed. On cross-examination, Faller acknowledged that Good Samaritan lacked forensic accreditation and that its method measured NADH production rather than ethanol directly. He agreed that markedly elevated LDH or lactic acid could produce a false positive. In response to questions about possible interference, he said Read’s test showed no relevant analyzer flags and that the elevations associated with multiple sclerosis would not reach a level that interfered with the result.

Trial Record (7)

Trial 1 First Criminal Trial Apr 29, 2024 – Jul 1, 2024 4 proceedings

Day 18

Direct Garrey Faller - Direct Examination Gary Faller Adam Lally 2 highlights 55 lines spoken
Summary

Pathologist Garrey Faller described Good Samaritan's alcohol-testing procedures and testified that Karen Read's chart reported 93 milligrams per deciliter.

Highlights (2)
Quote

“we do not want to use an alcohol swab to clean the area before the blood draw.”

Faller identified the hospital's stated contamination precaution for an alcohol test.

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Cross Gary Faller — Cross-Examination Gary Faller Elizabeth Little 1 highlights 19 lines spoken
Summary

Faller discussed the limits of hospital serum alcohol testing, including its inability to show when alcohol was consumed.

Highlights (1)
Quote

“So with any test, there can be interferences, and I'm sure there can be interferences with the forensic way of testing, as well.”

Faller acknowledged that testing methods can have interferences while explaining the hospital laboratory's safeguards.

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Trial 2 Retrial Apr 22, 2025 – Jun 18, 2025 3 proceedings

Day 4

Direct Gary Faller - Direct Gary Faller Adam Lally 4 highlights 57 lines spoken
Summary

ADA Lally examines Dr. Faller about Good Samaritan's laboratory policies and the recorded timeline of Karen Read's January 29, 2022 blood alcohol test.

Highlights (4)
Quote

“One of the major things we need to do when taking somebody's blood for alcohol is to obviously not use an alcohol swab.”

Preemptively addresses potential defense challenge about contamination of the blood sample

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Quote

“Also, in the emergency room, my supervisor pretty much removed probably 95% of all the alcohol swabs.”

Shows the hospital took systemic precautions against false positives in alcohol testing

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Cross Gary Faller - Cross Gary Faller Elizabeth Little 3 highlights 44 lines spoken
Summary

Elizabeth Little cross-examines Dr. Gary Faller about Good Samaritan's lack of forensic accreditation and its serum alcohol method. Faller describes the rate-of-NADH-production method and says markedly elevated LDH or lactic acid can cause false positives, while stating that multiple-sclerosis-related elevations would not reach a level that interfered with alcohol results; the court sustained an anemia question and struck asserted article findings.

Highlights (3)
Quote

“We've never had the forensic accreditation, but we have very good quality lab results, which I could go into further.”

Concedes the lab lacks forensic accreditation while attempting to defend the quality of results.

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Quote

“Correct. And that's because lactic acid or LDH actually forms NADH.”

Faller explained that, in theory, high LDH or lactic acid can form NADH in a serum or plasma test system; in his preceding qualification, he said false positives could result when LDH or lactic acid was markedly elevated.

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Redirect Gary Faller - Redirect Gary Faller Adam Lally 3 highlights 10 lines spoken
Summary

ADA Lally rehabilitates Dr. Faller on redirect, eliciting testimony about serum-to-whole-blood conversion factors, MS patients' lactic acid levels being too low to cause false positives, and the hospital lab's proficiency testing results matching forensic labs.

Highlights (3)
Quote

“The conversion factor is anywhere from 1.1 to 1.18 — it could be 18% or 11% higher in serum versus whole blood — but we don't do it.”

Faller described a serum-to-whole-blood conversion range under which a whole-blood equivalent would generally be lower than the serum result; he said his lab does not perform the conversion and deferred to experts.

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Quote

“But the results, based on this study of 600 multiple sclerosis patients — two big centers in Italy and one in the Netherlands — show that the highest level of lactic acid in the MS patients did not achieve — didn't get close.”

Faller testified that the cited MS study's highest lactic acid level was not high enough to interfere with the result.

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Quote

“And also interestingly, we can see the labs that are using headspace gas chromatography. And out of interest, we can see how we compare, and we have exactly the same results on these proficiency testings.”

Faller testified that, in the proficiency testing he described, his lab had the same results as labs using headspace gas chromatography.

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Locations Touched By This Testimony

Good Samaritan Medical Center 4 procs