The state Ethics Commission last week fined Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden $5,000 for the way his press office released material about his opponent during the 2022 campaign cycle.

In a “disposition agreement” signed by both Commission Executive Director David Wilson and Hayden, the commission wrote that Hayden was wrong to let his office attack Ricardo Arroyo based on confidential records in the DA’s office and wrong again in refusing to retract the statement.

At the time, Hayden was acting DA, having replaced Rachael Rollins after she was appointed US attorney, a position in which she also ran into ethical issues related to her support for Arroyo, which led to her ouster. 

The commission said that Hayden should have intervened in his press office’s actions, adding that he “knowingly or with reason to know used his official position as Suffolk DA to secure for himself the substantially valuable unwarranted privilege of the use of the public resources of the DA’s Office for his own personal political advantage in the Democratic primary election.”

The agreement concludes that, in addition to the fine, Hayden will not contest the findings in any legal proceedings.