PROVIDENCE — When Governor Carcieri took office in 2003, his first executive order dealt with “ethics and integrity” and directed the thousands of state and local officials governed by the state Code of Ethics to obey it, something they were already supposed to be doing.

When the governor settled his first ethics violation case two years later, he was apparently the first Rhode Island governor to do so.

Yesterday, Governor Carcieri broke new ground again by admitting to his fourth ethics violation and paying a $2,500 fine for hiring his niece, Stephanie Accaputo, in 2003.

In the settlement with the state Ethics Commission, Carcieri admitted violating the code, whose nepotism provisions bar public officials from using their positions to benefit their relatives.

In a statement afterward, however, the governor’s office asserted that “Mitigating factors found the governor did not intend to violate the Code of Ethics by employing Ms. Accaputo.”

Although the document includes mitigating factors favoring Carcieri, it also says explicitly that neither the commission nor the prosecution agreed with them. They were written by the governor’s lawyers and were included as a courtesy to the governor, commission prosecutor Diane Leyden said. The governor’s statement was “completely inaccurate” in that regard, she said.

Carcieri’s press secretary, Amy Kempe, said she didn’t intend to mislead anyone by attributing the “mitigating factors” to the commission.

Accaputo had worked on Carcieri’s successful 2002 campaign, and after he took office, he hired her for a $37,000 job in his Office of Constituent Affairs. She later rose to the job of administrative support specialist, with a $52,000 salary. The governor’s office said she resigned Friday.

Most politicians facing ethics prosecution have chosen to settle their cases and pay fines. Negotiating a settlement avoids the risk of a stiffer punishment. It also avoids formal prosecution, where all of the evidence against them is laid out in public.

Apparently, the only Rhode Island governor who has negotiated settlements, Carcieri is only the second governor to be the target of ethics complaints. The first was Edward D. DiPrete, who was also the first former or sitting governor to be convicted of a crime and imprisoned.

In May 2005, Carcieri agreed to pay $750 to settle two charges.

•Breaking the ethics code in December 2003 when he accepted tickets from Fleet Bank to watch a New England Patriots football game from the bank’s luxury box at Gillette Stadium.

•Failing to submit a mandatory financial disclosure statement on time in 2004. Filed by thousands of state and local officials, the disclosure forms are intended to let the public discover improprieties such as conflicts of interest. Carcieri said he didn’t violate the law knowingly and described the violation as “what I don’t think is a significant issue.”

In March, 2007, Carcieri agreed to pay a $1,000 fine for illegally soliciting campaign contributions from state employees during his reelection campaign in 2006. Carcieri’s campaign manger, Kenneth K. McKay IV, said at the time that the campaign might have inadvertently solicited money from state workers by both telephone and mail. If so, he said, they were regrettable incidents that the campaign tried to avoid.

The complaint settled yesterday was filed against the Republican governor in June by the head of the state Democratic Party, William J. Lynch. It relied on the code’s prohibition against officials using their office to benefit relatives, “whether by blood, marriage or adoption.” In effect since 1991, it lists nieces among the relatives covered.

Yesterday, meanwhile, another more-distant Carcieri relative, Sister Deborah H. Cerullo, a member of the state Ethics Commission, recused herself from the case. After Carcieri appointed her, she acknowledged that she is related to the governor’s wife, Suzanne Carcieri.

blandis@projo.com