A father from Wahiawā, Hawaii, named Dwight DeAllen Monk Jr., is going through a really tough time with the family court in Wayne County, Michigan, and a lot of people who know him believe the ruling he received is simply not fair.
Dwight served in the Army, and the proud Army veteran left the service with an honorable discharge as an E-6.
Dwight and the mother of his kids, Theresa Marie Monk, got divorced a while back. After they separated, the court papers from September 2023 ordered him to pay $1080 a month in child support because that amount was based on the salary he earned while he was still on active duty.
Everything changed for him in April 2025 when he got out of the Army and suddenly had no regular income at all.
After the military, Dwight moved to Hawaii and is now basically jobless. He started going to school full-time and began coaching football again.
He is waiting for the next football season (2024-2025) to be over so he can get back to coaching and earning again.
With no money coming in, he filed a motion asking the court to lower the child support until he is back on his feet.
On August 13, 2025, both Dwight and Theresa showed up on Zoom for the hearing in front of Referee Simpson in Wayne County, Michigan (the case is still in Michigan even though Dwight now lives in Hawaii).
Neither of them had a lawyer, so they spoke for themselves under oath.
Dwight explained that he currently earns nothing at all. Theresa told the court she works part-time at Ground Effects, making about $16.20 an hour and usually gets around forty hours each week.
After listening to both parents, the referee wrote a recommendation that surprised many people who had read the papers.
The motion to lower child support was completely denied, the $1,080 monthly payment must stay exactly the same, and the order continues to cover medical expenses, statutory fees, and everything else just as it did before.
It was Judge Alexis A. Glendening who signed that recommendation and made it the official order of the court.
Friends and fellow coaches who know Dwight say he has never walked away from his children and wasn’t an absent father.
Even when money has been tight, he has gone out of his way to keep daily contact with his kids and make sure the relationship stays strong.
Because the huge monthly payment is still based on the old Army paycheck he no longer receives, Dwight now finds himself in a position where he cannot pay what the court demands.
So far, he has reached out to a couple of lawyers who told him what it would cost to appeal or file a new motion the right way, but he simply cannot afford a lawyer to fight the decision properly.
That’s why Dwight started a GoFundMe with efforts to try to raise money for legal help so he can go back to court with a real attorney and show the judge his real situation today, and not the situation from two years ago.
He also posted the actual court document so anyone can read the referee’s recommendation for themselves.
Above all, Dwight is not asking to be let off the hook forever; he only wants the child support amount to match what he can actually pay while he finishes school and gets through this football season until coaching jobs open up again.
His own words on the fundraiser say it best, which reads:
I am currently seeking employment following the 2024-2025 football season…
GoFundMe
I am not an absent father in my children’s life as I have went to extremes to ensure that the consistent communication amongst me and my children are never interrupted or broken…
If anyone is willing to help me through this journey, I would appreciate it.
People who have seen the paperwork and heard Dwight’s side of the story are sharing it widely because they feel a veteran and involved father should not be treated as if he still earns the salary he had years ago, when his real income today is zero.
