The only man charged with a crime in the financial collapse of the RightStar group of cemeteries and funeral companies here has been apprehended in Oregon.

John F. Dooley, 56, was arrested by Polk County sheriffs on Sunday and will be returned to Hawai'i to face charges that he stole nearly $51,000 in funeral plan funds held in trust for customers of the company and its affiliates, according to state Attorney General Mark Bennett and a copy of the newly-unsealed indictment

Dooley was secretly indicted by the O'ahu grand jury in December 2006 and authorities have been looking for him ever since. The Advertiser reported the secret indictment in March of this year.

Bennett's office is also suing Dooley, other RightStar principals including his wife, Kathy Hoover, and various other companies and individuals affiliated with RightStar, alleging the improper removal of some $30 million from customers' trust funds.

The RightStar companies have been operated by a court-appointed master since 2004 and efforts to sell the businesses have so far proved unsuccessful.

The companies operate Valley of the Temples cemetery on O'ahu, Homelani and Kona Memorial Parks on the Big Island and Maui Memorial park on the Valley Isle. Other interests include "pre-need" funeral plans including 50th State Funeral Plan.

State officials have repeatedly issued assurances to some 50,000 customers holding "pre-need" funeral services contracts that the contracts will be honored. Bennett repeated those assurances yesterday.

Dooley has previously denied any wrongdoing in connection with his operation of RightStar, telling the Advertiser in an interview that the state civil charges of fraud at RightStar were "very simplistic."

He declined to go into details, but added, "When the truth comes out, it's going to be a completely different picture" than the one painted by the state.

Dooley said he had 25 years of experience in the funeral business when he, Hoover and California businessman Richard Bricka first formed RightStar in Las Vegas in mid-2000, with the intention of buying the Hawai'i assets of Loewen Group International, a bankrupt Canadian company that owned funeral and cemetery operations here.

He said he and his wife were "a couple of people who had an opportunity to achieve the American dream."

The possibility of buying the businesses in Hawai'i sounded "great," Dooley said. "We had no idea how complicated it was going to be."

Two weeks before forming RightStar in Nevada, Dooley and Hoover's personal bankruptcy case had been thrown out of court in Texas, court records there show.

Another bankruptcy case filed by the couple in Texas had also been dismissed a year earlier.

"A lot of people have had bankruptcy cases," Dooley told The Advertiser. "That doesn't mean anything."

Bennett's civil fraud suits also name as defendants four trustees, including former Gov. John Waihe'e, who oversaw funds held in trust for company customers.

Waihe'e and the other trustees have denied wrongdoing and said they discovered and reported improprieties in the company to state authorities.