Family of ASU hockey player Matthew Mayich wants MCAO to conduct criminal investigation

The family of Matthew Mayich wants the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office to conduct a criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the Arizona State University hockey player’s collapse during an outdoor workout last month.

In a letter to County Attorney Rachel Mitchell obtained by KTAR News 92.3 FM, Robert B. Carey of the Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro law firm laid out the reasons he thinks the prosecutor’s office should investigate the case instead of the ASU Police Department. MCAO confirmed receipt of the request and said it was under review.

Mayich, 21, collapsed from exertional heatstroke during the Aug. 20 workout and suffered a catastrophic brain injury, according to his family’s attorneys, who said his condition is irreversible.

The military-style workout was provided by an outside instructor and was not properly vetted by the hockey team’s coach or strength and conditioning staff, according to the letter.

“I am not writing to tell your office what to charge. That is your judgment, and I recognize that the line between a civil wrong and a criminal one is drawn by the mental state of the people involved, not by the severity of the result. But the result here is about as severe as it gets short of death,” Carey wrote.

Request from Matthew Mayich’s family cites ASU’s internal report

The letter is dated Wednesday, two days after ASU released the initial report from an internal review authorized by the university. The ASU Police Department is conducting a criminal investigation separate from the internal review, but Carey questions whether the agency has enough distance from administrators to complete the job properly.

“The problem is not that ASUPD’s officers lack skill or good faith. It is that ASUPD is a department of the university and answers to the administration whose athletic department, coaches and outside instructor are the subjects of the inquiry, while that same administration conducts the internal review that produced the Sept. 21 report,” Carey wrote.

In the letter, Carey cited information in Monday’s report to support his argument.

“The report itself notes that student-athletes were ‘invited’ to be interviewed, that none were required, and that ‘several’ have spoken to ASUPD. On a roster of more than two dozen, that is telling. You should give the student-athletes a space in which they can be honest,” the letter says.

Attorney for Matthew Mayich’s family is concerned about securing evidence

Carey does not want MCAO to rely on the ASU Police investigation when the office determines whether criminal charges are warranted. He urged prosecutors to secure evidence he thinks is at risk, including:

• The consultant request form and its record in the Sun Devil Athletics compliance system
• The workout plan, if one exists, and all communications about the training session
• Video and photographs from the workout site
• Player and staff messages about the event
• Any environmental or athletic training log for that date
• The athletic trainer’s treatment notes
• Dispatch records for the emergency response

“Should Matthew not survive, the same facts could support further charges under Arizona law, and the evidence that would prove them is the evidence at risk now,” Carey wrote.

Mayich is from Stoney Creek, Ontario. He was drafted by the St. Louis Blues in the sixth round of the 2023 NHL draft and transferred to ASU during the offseason after spending his freshman year playing at Clarkson University in New York.

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