By Courtney Dentch
A former Corrections Officer at Rikers Island was convicted Monday of killing her father and attacking her sister at their Rosedale home in an attempt to seize family assets worth $1 million, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.
Renee Dasque, 38, of 249-11 147th Road in Rosedale, was found guilty in State Supreme Court in Kew Gardens Monday of beating her father to death with a 6-foot metal pipe in July 2001 before turning on her sister, Brown said.
A jury of six men and six women deliberated for about eight hours over two days to find Dasque guilty of killing her father, Jacques Dasque, 63, and beating her sister, Jeanine Dasque, 33, Brown said.
“The defendant has been convicted after a jury trial of the intentional murder of her father and the assault of her half sister in a carefully planned scheme to become the family’s sole survivor because she wanted for herself her father’s houses, bank account, insurance policy and stock valued at over $1 million,” Brown said in a statement.
“Her half sister survived the attack only to tragically take her life two years later. The crime was callous and brutal and warrants imposition of a lengthy prison sentence,” the DA said.
Jeanine Dasque was slated to testify against her sister as the prosecution’s key witness, but she committed suicide in August.
Jeanine Dasque raised the alarm after the incident when she ran screaming from her Rosedale home about 2:30 a.m. on July 9, 2001. A neighbor called 911 and as police arrived they found Jacques Dasque hog-tied in the basement of the house with a fractured skull, broken ribs, a broken sternum and bruises on his head, neck and arms, according to trial testimony.
Jeanine, who needed 80 stitches, told officers and neighbors that her sister Renee, who was on medical leave from the Corrections Department, had attacked her, but she did not implicate her in the death of their father, officials said.
Prosecutors argued that the attack was an attempt to take control of her father’s assets, which included a savings account, a life insurance policy, stocks, two houses in Queens and a house in Florida, Brown said. The assets were valued at more than $1 million, he said.
It was unclear how Jacques Dasque, a retired hospital technician, had amassed his wealth.
Renee Dasque, who was on medical leave from the Department of Corrections, was arrested shortly after the attacks and has been held at Rikers Island without bail since, Brown said.
Dasque faces 25 years to life in prison and was scheduled to be sentenced March 10, the DA said.
Reach reporter Courtney Dentch by e-mail at news@timesledger.com, or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.
