Marilyn Dunlap is the mother of Jesse Kleberg and the ex-wife of Max Kleberg. Marilyn divorced Max and remarried due to his rampant infidelity, and she tried her best to help Jesse with his gambling problem, but he was cut off from Max and his wife Peyton when he tried to steal Peyton's jewelry to pay his bookie.
When Max was murdered and Peyton was raped, Jesse was suspected when the jewelry went missing. Marilyn got him his legal defense and revealed Max's womanizing, which led to the real perpetrators, Vincent Boyd and accomplice Lara Todd, who meant to hire Boyd to kill Peyton so she and Max could be together. (SVU: "Tangled")