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"I'm real scared," she said. "They might take him away."

Steve Doeung isn't worried about being "taken away." He still considers American the land of the free and the home of the brave. But he understands that fighting for his rights can pose problems. He's spent hundreds of hours researching condemnation laws, writing letters, and representing himself in hearings.

And he's felt heat from the city. He and some of his supporters don't think it is a coincidence that Fort Worth code enforcement officers have paid him so much attention lately. He's received citations for building materials stored on his porch and in his backyard.

"It would appear Steve is also fighting the city," said Louis McBee, an Eastside activist and organizer with Fort Worth Citizens for Responsible Government. "I've been by his house, and I don't see any [code] problems."

The neighborhood was undergoing a renovation with help from the city at about the same time Chesapeake was seeking easement rights. Street repairs and new sidewalks gave some polish to the old neighborhood, and residents were encouraged to tidy up.

Still, Code Compliance officers and police had never bothered Doeung prior to the condemnation dispute, he said. Code officers showed up for the first time just weeks after Doeung began fighting Chesapeake. Afterward, he began getting warnings for code violations. Doeung, McBee, and others wonder if city officials are flexing their muscles on Chesapeake's behalf. After all, the city has the ultimate power over the pipeline - city approval is required since the lines would run underneath city streets.

"Five of the nine members of the Fort Worth City Council will have to give Chesapeake permission to cross under those four or five streets," Rep. Lon Burnam said.

City council members, led by oil-and-gas proponent Mayor Mike Moncrief, have favored gas companies on almost every decision since the Barnett Shale play began five years ago. In Doeung's eyes, the city and Chesapeake are working in tandem to make the pipeline easement happen.

"It would appear the Code Compliance office is being used to harass Steve and his wife," McBee said.

Doeung said his daughter cried when numerous code officers and Fort Worth police officers showed up at the family's doorstep on July 2. Doeung described it as "a raid" and said police were aggressive and stern.

Doeung's yard is more cluttered than those around him, but his property doesn't appear to be rundown or neglected. When he got his first warning in November 2008 for keeping things like building materials on his front porch, he moved the material to a storage shed and thought the problem was solved. But he was warned twice more, he said, because he had moved some of the supplies back onto the porch because he was intending to use them soon.

City spokesman Bill Begley said Doeung and his wife weren't the only Carter Avenue residents to be scrutinized last year.

"More than 50 complaints were investigated on Carter Avenue in 2009, resulting in 39 cases being initiated for enforcement action," Begley said.

As for the "raid" that Doeung described, senior Code Compliance officer Jim Britton said it is not uncommon for police and code officers to work together during inspections.

Doeung is upset by these intrusions but typically maintains his calm. Time and again he has relied on his past to guide his actions. He recalls what it felt like to be uprooted from a charmed existence in Cambodia and suddenly find himself in a refugee camp.

"It was confusing and scary and somewhat humiliating to be destitute," he said. "It was especially tough for my mother because she had always had a pretty privileged life. My father channeled his energy into helping other refugees settle in."

Barbed wire and armed guards encircled the camp. Doeung, being the oldest of five children, would sometimes sneak out and do menial labor at nearby boat docks for spare change to buy food.

"They spoke a different language than I did, so I got yelled at a lot," he said. "But it didn't kill me. It made me stronger."

After the family arrived in Fort Worth, the family converted to Christianity and found sponsors at Sagamore Hill Baptist Church to help them settle into their new life. Sokthy, the former college president with a master's degree, could find only various unskilled and low-paying jobs at first. Later he became a church pastor.

Doeung, like his four siblings, adjusted to a new school, language, and culture in Texas.

"Everything was so big - not just the buildings and space but the people," he said. "Everyone was so much taller and bigger."

The kids had to get accustomed to drinking milk, a staple in Texas schools but not in Cambodia.

"We drank milk because it was part of the school meal, but we weren't used to it," he said. "The bus driver was glad to get rid of us because every day one of my siblings would throw up on the way home."

After a short stay in an apartment, the family moved into a rent house near Carter Avenue.

"We were the only Cambodian family here for four or five years," he said.

His parents forbade him to play sports, but he rebelled. The family was going through cross-culture shock, with his parents rooted in the old ways and the children embracing the new. Doeung applied himself to his studies to please his father but also tried out for volleyball, softball, and other sports teams, paving the way for his younger siblings.