
Dr. Mona Lavelle is a villainess from "Ch-Ch-Changes," episode 5.08 of CSI (airdate November 18, 2004).
She was played by Lindsay Crouse.
Backstory[]
Mona Lavelle was born Karl Benway, and she was a Vietnam vet who served as a medic. She participated as a sanctuary alliance in Ghana before moving on to Mexico, where she was arrested for performing illegal abortions, due to the fact that Mona never went to medical school. At some point after 1987, Mona underwent gender reassignment surgery, and later married Francis Lavelle, as well as becoming the mother of their daughter, Tippi (who was born via a surrogate, Amber Henshaw).
Events[]
The events saw Mona working as a counselor, though she was also performing gender reassignment surgeries without a license, with Amber assisting her. She botched one surgery on a woman known as Mercedes, but a second surgery on Tawny (born Vern Saldusky) ended up resulting in Tawny bleeding to death after Mona and Amber's failed attempts to repair her. The surgeries were performed in a storage unit, and following Tawny's death, Mona and Amber left the scene and covered up their actions. Another patient of Mona's was Wendy Garner, who was worked on before Tawny, and was murdered in the episode.
Mona was interviewed regarding Wendy, stating that she last saw her one night prior and that Wendy seemed agitated regarding her relationship with her fiancée, Aaron. However, after Mona's past was revealed, she ended up interrogated by Jim Brass, with the villainess defending her actions by stating that she was helping those who were refused by others. She was suspected in Wendy's murder, though Mona stated that she was at Tippi's soccer game on the night in question. Her alibi checked out, though it was revealed that Wendy had found out about Mona's role in Tawny's death, as she found the body inside the storage unit.
Wendy confronted Mona with video evidence of her role, but in response, the evil Mona threatened to expose Wendy as being transgender to Aaron. Wendy was actually killed by Francis, who did so to cover up his wife's past actions, and regarding Mona, she was arrested following her interrogation.