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Sterling care home seeking damages from Kenai Peninsula Borough mayor’s family

Published 5:00 pm Wednesday, June 10, 2026

A table sits empty in Courtroom 4 of the Kenai Courthouse on Dec. 11, 2024. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion file)

A table sits empty in Courtroom 4 of the Kenai Courthouse on Dec. 11, 2024. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion file)

The Kenai Peninsula Borough mayor has been named in a lawsuit filed in Kenai Superior Court.

Sterling Silver Assisted Living Home is seeking damages in excess of $100,000 from Gerald Keene and Erin and Peter Micciche. The defendants are listed as Micchiche, not Micciche, throughout the documents filed June 5 in Anchorage.

The complaint filed by Caitlin Shortell, the lawyer for Sterling Silver Assisted Living, contends Keene, who is Erin Micciche’s father, moved into the assisted living facility on May 10, 2023. He left the facility after he was hospitalized on July 1 and moved back into the plaintiff’s facility on Feb. 24, 2024.

The court documents allege that one of Keene’s room and board checks was returned for non-sufficient funds in October 2024, and by June 2025 the balance owing topped $87,000.

The company filed a complaint for debt collection against Keene in the Kenai courts on June 12, 2025, and according to the Sterling care home’s complaint, Erin Micciche paid $3,000 and asked the company to retract its termination of services. Keene moved out of the facility to a private residence on Oct. 9, 2025, at which time the company calculated his total debt for room and board was $107,094, not including other supplies.

The court documents say Keene’s Palmer property was transferred to Erin and Peter Micchiche for $10.

“On or about April 24, 2026, transfer of Mr. Keene’s real property for nominal consideration was made with actual intent to hinder, delay, or defraud Plaintiff, or alternatively, without receiving reasonably equivalent value while Mr. Keene was insolvent or became insolvent as a result of the transfer,” according to the court filing.

“Erin and Peter Micchiche participated in and benefitted from the transfer and acted in concert with Mr. Keene to remove assets from the reach of creditors including Plaintiff.”

The lawsuit seeks to make the property transfer voidable and impose a lien on the property, with the company seeking the outstanding balance owed, as well as interest, attorney’s fees and punitive damages.

“Defendants combined and agreed to accomplish an unlawful objective or a lawful objective by unlawful means – namely, to hinder, delay, or defraud Plaintiff by transferring Mr. Keene’s property for nominal consideration while a substantial debt to Plaintiff remained unpaid,” according to the complaint.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.