A 30-foot mound of illegal fill dirt sloping toward a building on Botham Jean Boulevard has trapped a South Dallas property owner in litigation for nine years, spanning four courtrooms and at least five judges, with no end in sight. Michael Williams says he began fighting the issue when he was 57 years old. He is now 71.
The dispute traces back to 2014, when Williams and Keith Poole purchased the property together, according to The Dallas Morning News. Poole was supposed to operate an auto repair shop on the site and make monthly payments to Williams, but Williams says those payments never came. Williams sued Poole in 2016 seeking full ownership, and a court later awarded Williams 99% ownership with Poole retaining 1%. Williams has said he neither authorized nor knew about the dumping until after it happened, while Poole has said he brought the fill onto the properties to address frequent flooding, per the same account.
Michael Williams' property is one of four in South Dallas, together covering more than 8.1 acres, that contain thousands of tons of fill dumped without permits, all sitting within a FEMA-designated floodplain. City inspectors first documented illegal dumping violations there in 2017. The properties carry additional code violations including overgrown grass, graffiti, tire storage and trash, and the article notes their estimated combined value tops $500,000 — a figure at the center of the dispute over whether cleanup is even financially rational.
A Tangle of Owners, Orders and Contempt Findings
Neil Goldberg entered the picture as owner of three of the four named properties by 2022. Goldberg has said he had no idea Williams co-owned the property with Poole at the time, per the same account, and he believes dirt removal would cost more than the properties are worth. Goldberg has not sought permits to remove the fill, nor have he and his engineer submitted an engineering plan to the city, and he has challenged the appointment of a receiver overseeing the cleanup.
Dallas County held Poole responsible for removing the dirt in 2021, and a court later held him in contempt twice for failing to comply. He was ultimately ordered to serve 90 days in the Dallas County jail. Judges have ordered the fill removed repeatedly over the years, according to the outlet's reporting, but court orders have never allocated responsibility among the property owners for removing the fill or dividing cleanup costs, leaving a stalemate that has outlasted multiple judges.
City Steps In With a Receiver
Dallas initially sued Goldberg over code violations in 2020, then dropped that case and folded him into a broader lawsuit against Williams and Poole, seeking dirt removal and full property remediation. The city has said it sought a court-appointed receiver to control the properties, evaluate options and undertake the necessary work after years of failed compliance. A Dallas County judge appointed a receiver in 2025, naming Texas Receivership Group, led by Perry Kilgo.
Texas Receivership Group was founded in 2019 by California Receivership Group founder Mark Adams to give Texas courts a mechanism for appointing neutral receivers in chronic property nuisance cases, according to Mark Adams’s own professional biography. A court authorized an initial $40,000 receiver's certificate to stabilize the properties and begin compliance work, and receivership costs become liens against the properties, with the receiver empowered to ask the court for permission to sell if costs go unpaid. The receiver has already accumulated more than $47,000 in fees. Mediation involving Williams, Poole, Goldberg and the city failed to produce a resolution, and a Dallas request to recuse Judge Staci Williams was denied after an independent review. Separately, the Fifth Court of Appeals dismissed Goldberg's appeal because filing deadlines were not met.
Why Removing the Dirt Isn't Simple
Cleanup on the site isn't as simple as hiring a dump truck. It requires permits before any fill can be placed or removed on a floodplain, plus coordination and approval from Dallas' floodplain management department. Under the Dallas Development Code, altering land within a FEMA-designated 100-year floodplain requires a specialized Fill Permit issued by the Director of Dallas Water Utilities, an $8,150 nonrefundable application fee, and formal City Council approval, according to Dallas City Hall guidelines. Engineers typically must survey the property, evaluate soil conditions, and analyze effects on surrounding flooding before any work can proceed.
Those hurdles exist because large amounts of unpermitted fill can change stormwater movement and increase flooding risk elsewhere. Dallas floodplain regulations mandate a strict no-rise policy on 100-year flood surface elevations and require developments to preserve valley storage capacity, so displaced stormwater doesn't push flooding onto neighboring or downstream properties. Edwin Ochieng has said flooding does not stop at a property line, and that fixing one spot may simply push water somewhere else. The city notes that strict enforcement of these rules also lets compliant Dallas property owners qualify for a 15% discount on flood insurance premiums.
The stakes for skirting these rules are steep. Under Texas Health and Safety Code Section 365.012, illegal dumping of solid waste exceeding 200 cubic feet, or commercial dumping over 200 pounds, is classified as a state jail felony carrying fines up to $10,000 and potential confinement, according to Click2Houston. The problem is not unique to this stretch of Botham Jean Boulevard: state agencies expanded joint anti-dumping surveillance operations across Texas cities, including Dallas, in October 2025, using remote cameras to catch commercial dumpers, as previously reported by Hoodline. Hoodline has also documented illegal dumping along the Trinity River, where accumulated debris washes into drainage channels during heavy rains and raises flood risk for the surrounding South Dallas area.
Broader Legal Pushback Against Receivers
Texas Receivership Group's court-ordered enforcement tactics have drawn scrutiny well beyond this case. Federal court dockets show that other Dallas County property owners challenged Texas Receivership Group, Mark Adams and Perry Kilgo in federal court in July 2025 over receiver liens and forced land sales, though a magistrate judge recommended dismissing those claims without prejudice in December 2025. It illustrates the friction that can follow when cities lean on receivership powers to force compliance on stubborn nuisance properties.
Dallas says it continues working with the receiver and the property owners to bring the four properties into compliance, though cleanup could still take months once any plan is approved. The city's lawsuit against Williams, Poole and Goldberg is scheduled for trial on November 10, 2026, in Dallas County. Until then, the mound on Botham Jean Boulevard — a street renamed from South Lamar Street in January 2021 after the Dallas City Council unanimously honored Botham Jean — remains where it has sat for years, sloping toward Williams' building and, by his account, rendering his vacant property essentially unusable for about a decade.
