For 20 years, Pete Arnold has been a prisoner of what a psychologist called "one of the most pernicious mental disorders that there are."

Failing appeals, Arnold could become a prisoner of the state as well, despite repeated protests from his "victims" that he did no harm and they did not wish him prosecuted or imprisoned.

Arnold, who has been described as bipolar, paranoid, schizophrenic and delusional, is best known for his vitriolic protests, targeting every official who ever had a hand in processing the many charges filed against him over the past 20 years.

Arnold has been jailed for such things as trying to spray paint on then-Police Chief Lee Brown, stalking former Harris County Sheriff Johnny Klevenhagen with signs accusing him of being a transvestite, and accusing a female judge of bad personal hygiene.

But more recently, Arnold was convicted of felony arson after he set a trash fire on his Southeast Houston property that burned onto neighboring land.

He had been feuding with a contractor who was working on the neighboring property.

People who know Arnold say feuding is his nature. He is an expert at perceiving wrongdoing, people say, and of harassing that perceived wrongdoer.

It was not always so.

Growing up in Bellaire, Arnold was an Eagle Scout, a high school football player and a Golden Gloves boxer.

He joined the Marine Corps and went to Vietnam.

He came home after his honorable discharge in 1968 and began selling cars, which segued into a job as a NASCAR driver.

In 1971, he married. In 1978, he was divorced. By the early '70s, it was apparent that Pete Arnold was ill. And Barbara Arnold has never stopped taking care of her ex-husband. As he acted upon his delusions and compulsions, taking care of him became a full-time job.

According to lawyer and psychologist Floyd Jennings, who has treated Pete Arnold, symptoms of his mental disorder are "bizarre delusions and beliefs of a conspiracy against him."

Further, Arnold feels compelled to point out the shortcomings of public officials. Jennings said in a deposition: "Pete has one of the most pernicious mental disorders that there are."

Arnold's current trouble began in July 1998, on 6 acres he owns in the 4100 block of Almeda-Genoa. For 10 years he has visited the property regularly and burned trash and brush that collect there, said Barbara Arnold.

The property neighbors that of Cullen Missionary Baptist Church, where the Rev. Robert Jefferson and his daughters are familiar with Pete and Barbara Arnold.

In July 1998, workers were clearing part of the church's property in preparation for construction and Pete Arnold was feuding with the contractor, Roy Owens, about brush and debris left on Arnold's property.

"He dressed up in a wig and a Hawaiian-print dress and carried a sign up and down Almeda-Genoa," Barbara Arnold said. "When he found a toilet dumped in a ditch, he sat down on it and pretended to read a newspaper, just to get attention from the people driving by."

The feud was in full swing on July 17, 1998, when Pete Arnold built a trash fire on the corner of his property. The fire crossed into neighboring land and burned high enough to prompt Robertine Jefferson, the pastor's daughter, to call the Houston Fire Department.

The resulting report labeled it a trash fire involving no structure, and placed the estimated dollar loss at "none."

The fire was referred to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, because it was believed to have involved property belonging to a black church. An ATF investigator visited the site and talked to witnesses July 20, generating a report that characterized the incident as a brush fire on church property, with no structure involved.

A day later, Pete Arnold was charged with felony arson.

"I was shocked when I found out he had been charged with arson," said Robert Jefferson. "It was a trash fire in the ditch."

Finding himself named as the complainant in the case, Jefferson called and wrote letters to the district attorney's office saying he never complained about the fire.

More than 200 members of Jefferson's congregation signed a petition stating, "Pete Arnold did not burn any part of our church and should not go to prison. We did not prosecute or ask for him to be prosecuted on our behalf."

"They said we didn't have any say in the matter; it was a crime against the state," Jefferson said. "It's silly. This man has been burning trash back there for years."

On July 27, 1998, Barbara Arnold discovered that the fire had not burned onto church property, but onto the property of Clewis Reddell, who owns a 50-foot strip of land separating the church's property from her ex-husband's.

Reddell did not want to prosecute, and Barbara Arnold anticipated the charges being dismissed.

But two days later, prosecutor Steve Baldassano visited the fire scene and interviewed contractor Owens, who was not present when the fire occurred.

Owens showed Baldassano a trail of debris laid from the site of the fire to church property, according to court records, and a couple of charred boards that Owens said were parts of concrete forms he had to replace after the fire damaged them.

The following day, an indictment was issued charging that Pete Arnold started a fire "with the intent" to destroy and damage vegetation, a structure and a fence on Jefferson's property.

Barbara Arnold's next best hope was a competency hearing. Pete Arnold has twice been found incompetent in court hearings. He has had about 16 psychiatric hospitalizations in the past 20 years, 14 of them involuntary. He has drawn Social Security income for mental disability for 20 years.

Bob Tarrant had often represented Pete Arnold and always, Barbara Arnold said, requested a competency hearing.

Tarrant suffered a stroke before Pete Arnold's arson trial in February 1999. Jim Mount, a former prosecutor who had just entered private practice, then represented Arnold.

Mount did not request a competency hearing. He declined to discuss his decision while the case is under appeal.

Baldassano did not request a competency hearing, either, saying he did not believe one was necessary.

"He sounded to me like he knew what he was charged with," Baldassano said. "The standard is not whether he's a nice guy and acts normal, but whether or not he understands the charges against him."

Arnold was convicted of arson and received a five-year prison term.

The conviction was appealed to the First Court of Appeals in Houston, saying in part that Arnold should have had a competency hearing and had ineffective counsel. That appeal was denied.

The case now is being appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin.

"They want to send him to prison for being Pete Arnold," Barbara Arnold said. "I'm going to do everything I can to stop that from happening."