The center has been consumed by legal troubles in recent years. There have been lawsuits and complaints made to the attorney general’s office over alleged neglect and mismanagement. The place was initially run by an organization called West Dallas Community Centers, which later changed its name to the Lucious L. Williams Foundation. Now, some in West Dallas want the city to take it over.
In 2016, the organization tried to evict one of its tenants, the nonprofit Beyond Baseball Youth Association Inc., over payments owed for rent and utilities. The baseball nonprofit is owned by a former professional baseball player in the New York Yankees minor league system named John Darjean, who played at Dallas Baptist University before being drafted by the Yankees in 1997.
Darjean said at the time that the organization, then called West Dallas Community Centers, simply refused to accept his payments and wanted him out. “They are trying to get out of this 10-year lease because they are trying to sell the property,” Darjean’s attorney Dana Hamilton told a judge at the time, according to The Dallas Morning News.
Lucious Williams, longtime board member of WDCC, told the News in 2016 that there were no plans to sell the property. The judge ultimately ruled in Darjean’s favor after he showed copies of dated money orders that he said his landlord refused to take. But that legal battle didn’t wrap up until 2019, after WDCC changed its name to the Lucious L. Williams Foundation. That year, the foundation agreed to honor the rest of Beyond Baseball’s 10-year lease at the center.
Earlier that year, the center was put up for sale for $10 million, according to the News. Around the same time, West Dallas resident Maria Lozada Garcia and the La Bajada Neighborhood Community Association filed a complaint against the Lucious L. Williams Foundation with the office of the Texas attorney general, claiming that the foundation should not be entrusted with the community center any longer, according to WFAA.“The city is saying that we want to preserve history." – Ronnie Mestas, West Dallas resident
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In 2020, the attorney general’s office brought a case against Lucious L. Williams, WDCC and several of its board directors for breach of fiduciary duty in their handling of the Bataan Community Center. While the organization was going by a different name at the time, it was referred to as West Dallas Community Centers, Inc., in the attorney general’s court filing. The attorney general’s initial court filing explained that West Dallas Community Centers, Inc., is a nonprofit organized under the IRS and incorporated in 1935, with the stated purpose to operate and conduct a charitable institution.
Namely, it was supposed to operate a free medical and dental clinic, gather and disseminate information to the community, provide free classes in elementary subjects to adults, give aid and advice in public improvements and public health, and provide a public meeting center in the West Dallas area where none is provided by the city of Dallas.
In 2011, the organization began to lose funding. “Consequently, [West Dallas Community Centers]’s charitable services were reduced, and charitable assets were wasted as a result of mismanagement and negligence,” the attorney general said in court documents. The organization eventually had to sell off other properties to help continue operations and pay property taxes at the Bataan Community Center.
In 2019, the organization lost its nonprofit status after it failed to file federal tax returns three years in a row. Since then, it has operated in violation of its certificate of formation, which says the organization should not engage in any activity that would cause it to lose its nonprofit status.
The attorney general determined there was cause to involuntarily dissolve the organization and terminate it from the state’s business organization code. The attorney general also accused WDCC of grossly negligent mismanagement of its assets.
Fast forward a couple of years to 2022, when there is a final judgment in the case. The attorney general and the defendants agreed that the Trinity Park Conservancy Community Development Corporation was an appropriate nonprofit organization to receive the remaining assets of WDCC, and it was ordered that the WDCC be terminated. WDCC didn’t admit any wrongdoing in the case.
Everything has been put on hold since the final judgment in 2022 as the parties decide who should be responsible for the community center. The attorney general’s office hasn’t deeded the property to the Trinity Park Conservancy yet because of these ongoing discussions. But there is some desire for it to eventually come under city control.
West Dallas resident Ronnie Mestas said he’d like the city to take over the property so it can be preserved. In a letter to the Trinity Park Conservancy, he talked about how that might be done.
“From hosting community events and cultural celebrations to providing vital health services and resources, the Bataan Community Center has played a pivotal role in shaping the identity of our community,” Mestas said in his letter. “We recognize the challenges involve[d] in maintain[ing] historical structures, that is why we firmly believe that the city of Dallas, District 6, is the most capable entity of ensuring that the Bataan Community Center remains in a perpetual state of continuity and stability.”
The center was built in the 1930s and was a social space for the community during the Great Depression, Mestas said. After WWII, it was designated as the Bataan Community Center. The area surrounding the center was home for many veterans returning from WWII, Mestas said. “So, it has a deep military and historical value,” he said.
Mestas believes that restoring and revitalizing the community center has the potential to stimulate economic growth and tourism, and create opportunities for local businesses. Sylvia Lagos, board president of the La Bajada Neighborhood Community Association, also wrote to the Trinity Park Conservancy on behalf of the board voicing support for the city's taking over the Bataan Community Center.
“On behalf of La Bajada Neighborhood Community Association (LBNCA), along with community members across West Dallas, we are in full support for the city of Dallas to take over the responsibility of conservatorship for the Bataan Center located at 3232 Bataan Street, Dallas, Texas 75212,” Lagos’ letter said.
Tony Moore, president and CEO of the Trinity Park Conservancy, was pretty tight lipped about the whole ordeal, saying only this on the record: “The Trinity Park Conservancy is working with the community and their partners to seek ways we can assist with the transition of the Bataan Center.”
The city did not respond to requests for comment about the Bataan Community Center. However, the Observer obtained a January letter from Dallas City Council member Omar Narvaez expressing interest in the property.
“Based on discussions several months ago that were expressed to the Trinity Park Conservancy, along with the recommendations from the La Bajada Neighborhood Community Association, community members across West Dallas, and other stakeholders, the city of Dallas expressed its interest, and I wanted to make you aware of its interest in acquiring the Bataan Center located at 3232 Bataan Street, Dallas, Texas 75212,” the letter said.
But, Narvaez added in the letter that it is nonbinding and the acquisition of the property will ultimately be decided by the Texas attorney general’s office.
Mestas is hoping that preserving the center will be part of the city’s new historic and cultural preservation plan. “The city is saying that we want to preserve history. That’s a perfect model right there,” Mestas said, referring to the center. “We’ve been ignored for years and years, and I think this is one way at least for the city to kind of make some sort of amends for what they’ve neglected.”
