Suffolk District Attorney Kevin R. Hayden has paid a $5,000 ethics fine for his office’s press release about his opponent during the 2022 district attorney race, a bitter campaign that continues to reverberate through Boston politics.
The race between Hayden, then the interim district attorney, and then-Boston city councilor Ricardo Arroyo, became increasingly vitriolic heading toward the September primary between the two Democrats. A Boston Globe story in August revealed that Arroyo had been investigated for sexual misconduct as a teenager, although no charges were ever filed. Arroyo said investigators had determined the allegations against him were unfounded, as a detective wrote on one of the documents from the case.
On Sept. 2, four days before the primary, Hayden’s office released a statement saying that he had “reviewed the entire unredacted file regarding the sexual assault allegations,” that “nothing in the file suggests the allegations were unfounded,” and that “the campaign to sabotage the victim’s credibility is shameful.”
In a statement on Thursday, the state Ethics Commission said Hayden was aware his staff intended to issue the statement and “took no action” to stop them, nor did he withdraw the statement later.
“By these failures to act, Hayden knowingly or with reason to know used his official position as Suffolk District Attorney to secure for himself the unwarranted privilege of using valuable public resources for his own personal political advantage and violated the conflict of interest law,” the commission wrote.
“The authority and prestige of a District Attorney’s office and the worktime of its staff are valuable public resources to be used for the public good,” said David A. Wilson, who directs the ethics commission. “Their use to discredit a political opponent in order to gain advantage in an election or for any other private purpose is prohibited by the conflict of interest law.”
A spokesperson for Hayden, James Borghesani, said in a statement that Hayden takes responsibility for the office’s lapse. But Borghesani added that “the statement in question was written and released by me with no participation or coordination from the DA.”
“Our office’s communications on this matter were above-board, limited and cautious,” he said. “Out of great concern for the alleged victims involved, we responded to voluminous media questions with extreme care and without revealing any case details.”
The Globe reported in February that Hayden was the subject of two different ethics probes about the statement.
Arroyo, who lost re-election to the city council last year, said in a statement that he was grateful to the Ethics Commission “for holding him accountable.”
“We have always maintained that Kevin Hayden betrayed the public’s trust and illegally used the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office to win his campaign,” Arroyo said.
Arroyo had to pay a $3,000 penalty to the ethics commission last year for continuing to serve as his brother’s legal counsel in a lawsuit against the city while he was a city councilor.
Hayden won the primary and then coasted to a full four-year term unopposed.
The race ultimately led to the resignation of US Attorney Rachael Rollins, Hayden’s predecessor as Suffolk district attorney, in May 2023, ahead of two federal reports found she attempted to wield her influence and resources to try to help Arroyo become elected to her former post.
Sean Cotter can be reached at sean.cotter@globe.com. Follow him @cotterreporter.