Mediation with Martha Roletto

As part of this case, I went through mediation. Just days after filing our complaint, my ex scheduled an appointment with Martha Roletto. Now I know why, and I strongly suggest any men reading this to refuse mediation with her.

Martha Roletto

As I’ve learned, Martha is a woman centered Mediator, and she does everything she can to make women win and men lose. After I got screwed over in mediation, I asked a friend, who confirmed that Martha has this reputation of being biased against men. I’ll get to this further down.

Contact Information

Martha T. Roletto [email protected] Roletto Law, PLLC
1137 N. 3rd Street
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho 83814
Roletto Law
Phone: (208) 449-7039
Facsimile: (208) 442-7575

Penny Scott
[email protected] Paralegal for Martha T. Roletto

Background

I need to put this mediation into context for my case. My wife and I had been living together in our home in Coeur d’Alene until March 2023. My ex had been planning to move our family across the country, and told me to move out first. After I moved out, I learned that this was a trap in order to gain advantage in a divorce she had been planning. So I decided to move back to Coeur d’Alene in August 2023. It was at this point that mediation was scheduled. I had quit my job in Aug 2023 and mediation was scheduled in Sept 2023.

My Experience

I told Martha that I would be driving back to Coeur d’Alene and did not want mediation scheduled during that time. So what does she do? She says she’s only available during the days I was driving, and not the weeks before or after. This should’ve been red flag number 1 and I should have cancelled. But I didn’t know any better.

So we had mediation while I was in a hotel room during a road trip.

Right up front, Martha said we couldn’t record what was happening. Now I know this is simply to protect Martha, and had nothing with helping the process. Martha does not want the world to know what she’s really up to.

During mediation, my ex said she would be withholding my daughter from me unless I signed an agreement. Martha said this was because my ex was making accusations. I told Martha this was absurd and irrelevant.

Hwoever, Martha said I needed to defend myself to her and provide evidence that the accusations were not true. Essentiallt Martha was making me feel I was on trial and needed to prove my innocence to Martha. This is highly unethical, as Mediators are not there except to facilitate discussions.

Not only were the accusations false, but I showed evidence that my ex had been engaged in child abuse, false accusations of child abuse, and has been sending a nasty torrent of abusive texts when I said I was moving back to Idaho.

So, Martha decided to pivot. She said, if I wanted to see my daughter, I should sign an unfavorable agreement that will last for one month. I was greatly opposed to this, but I ultimately agreed, since it would not be an indefinite agreement. My ex had scheduled a temporary orders hearing for the next month, and we all agreed to supersede the agreement with that hearing.

Since I was still driving cross-country, Martha told me to get back on the road and sign as soon as I stopped. Which was after midnight in Montana. I was totally wiped out and did not have time to review the agreement, as I trusted Martha wrote up what was discussed. I also thought this was a stopgap order, so wasn’t as important since it would soon be superseded.

Turns out, Martha was intentionally lying to me about the 1 month part. Martha instead drafted up an agreement without any time limit. She knew this was a mandatory component of my signing the agreement, but she intentionally left it out and replaced it with ambiguous language.

Aftermath

Two days after I signed the agreement, my ex cancelled the temporary orders hearing, and immediately took the position that the agreement was permanent.

I tried to have my signature revoked immediately. However, both my attorney and Martha pressured me into keeping my signature and accepting a new hearing date. I was highly resistant, but eventually caved because of the immense pressure they put on me.

In this agreement, all visitation expired after one month. Which it did. Further, the agreement said I had to pay for the mortgage and HOA for our condo, which my wife had deceptively kicked me out of.

We finally had a hearing in Oct 2023. The court assigned me new visitation which was totally oppressive, and they required we keep following the agreement, which required I continue paying the mortgage and HOA fee on our condo.

Ultimately, the court enforced Martha’s agreement as the permanent agreement. Rather than being responsible for the mortgage and HOA for 1 month, it turned into 16 months. I was never allowed back in to my home. I was never allowed a temporary orders hearing. All of this could have been avoided had Martha not been so deceptive, manipulative, and unprofessional. This was all done on purpose, and other men have experienced this same level of pressure and deceptive from Martha. Had Martha not created this agreement, I would have just walked back in to my home and gotten my daughter. Before the agreement there was nothing keeping me out. By signing the agreement, I was in effect agreeing to pay for my home, while never having access. I never again was allowed to step foot in my home after Mar 2023, despite being responsible for all payments until Jan 2025. This was all done with malice and intent by Martha.

Conclusion

In conclusion, avoid Martha entirely. She really should lose her license for what she’s doing. It’s clear she’s not unbiased, and is using this “off the record” nature of mediation to screw men over. The laws should be changed to allow recording of the process by all parties. It makes no sense why this is considered closed door, since the parties are never face to face.