A Pittsburgh police officer who was arrested last weekend on assault and drunken driving charges also has been accused of pressuring his wife to make false allegations of sexual abuse against the grandparents of her children.

Cassandra Abel, wife of Officer Paul Abel, filed for an emergency protection-from-abuse order on Feb. 8, claiming that she suspected Richard and Linda Sciubba of inappropriately touching her two daughters.

She and the Sciubbas, the parents of her first husband, were locked in a custody battle for the girls at the time.

The protective order was not approved because Mrs. Abel didn't show up for a court hearing several days later. Allegheny County's Office of Children, Youth and Families still investigated the accusations, even though Mrs. Abel recanted her claim on Feb. 15 in an affidavit, saying the Sciubbas did not "pose any risk whatsoever" to her daughters.

Later that month, during a hearing before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge David N. Wecht, Mrs. Abel said her husband forced her to make the charges against the Sciubbas, according to Joseph Horowitz, an attorney whose firm represents the Sciubbas.

There was no court reporter at the hearing, but Mr. Horowitz spoke of Mrs. Abel's comments during a March public hearing of the Citizen Police Review Board, which has been investigating several complaints against Officer Abel.

During that hearing, the officer denied pressuring his wife.

Early Saturday, according to police investigators, Officer Abel hit a 20-year-old man in the back of the head with his gun soon after leaving Town Tavern, a South Side bar, while off duty. The gun then went off, wounding the man in his hand.

Officer Abel, who has been a police officer for eight years and served with the Army in Iraq, was charged with aggravated assault and two counts of driving under the influence of alcohol.

He has been suspended without pay and currently is seeking treatment and counseling, according to his lawyer, William H. Difenderfer. Officer Abel faces a preliminary hearing on Sept. 9.

In an interview yesterday, Mr. Sciubba said Officer Abel personally threatened to keep his stepchildren away from their grandparents.

"He told me on the phone, 'You'll never see these kids again,'" said Mr. Sciubba, of the South Side Slopes. He and his wife are now caring for the girls -- Larissa, 8, and Arianna, 5 -- at their vacation home in Okeechobee, Fla., near Orlando.

"I've fully clothed these kids since they've been babies," Linda Sciubba said. "We love them and we want to take care of them."

In May, Judge Wecht awarded the Sciubbas partial custody of Mrs. Abel's daughters.

Mrs. Abel didn't return a phone call seeking comment yesterday.

The dispute between the Sciubba family and Officer Abel dates back at least several years, Mrs. Sciubba said. The officer once got into a fight with her son, Paul Kennedy, at a bar in Bridgeville. He then threatened to hurt him, she said.

Mrs. Sciubba said she contacted Officer Abel's father, Sgt. Paul Abel Sr. of the Scott Police Department, and asked him to intervene.

"He's like a bomb waiting to go off," she said of Officer Abel.

In January, Joseph Stubenrauch, 27, of Allentown, said Officer Abel beat him up at his home as paramedics tried to treat his father, who was having heart problems.

His father had resisted going to the hospital, forcing paramedics to call police. When they arrived, Officer Abel wanted to zap Mr. Stubenrauch's father with a Taser, Mr. Stubenrauch said.

Mr. Stubenrauch told Officer Abel not to use the Taser, and said the officer grabbed him.

"He's screaming and yelling. He started smashing my head against the wall," Mr. Stubenrauch said.

Officer Abel arrested him. On the way to the Allegheny County Jail, the officer stopped his patrol car, pulled Mr. Stubenrauch out and threw him against the car several times "to have some fun and teach me a lesson."

At the county jail, a nurse instructed Officer Abel to take Mr. Stubenrauch to the hospital because of his injuries. Warden Ramon Rustin yesterday confirmed that medical issues prevented the man from being incarcerated.

Mr. Stubenrauch later was charged with resisting arrest, obstructing emergency services, harassment and disorderly conduct. He faces a pretrial conference this month.

He said he gave a taped statement to the city's Office of Municipal Investigations, but the office later dismissed his complaint as "unfounded."

OMI Manager Kathy Kraus would not confirm or deny the existence of any investigations of Officer Abel, but said "we investigate all complaints."

Last year, Officer Abel and his brother-in-law, Muhamid Desmond Thornton, brawled in the hallway of the Allegheny County Courthouse while Mrs. Abel was testifying against another woman in an assault case.

The fight began when Mr. Thornton walked over to greet his nieces, Larissa and Arianna, who were sitting with Officer Abel.

The officer told Mr. Thornton to stay away, and they came to blows.

The two men disagree over who started the fight, but Mr. Thornton was arrested and charged with aggravated assault on an officer, among more than a dozen other offenses. He spent two months in the county jail and at least eight months on house arrest.

He was later convicted of disorderly conduct. A jury found him not guilty on all other charges.

During his trial, Mr. Thornton, who now lives in Ohio, testified that once when he was visiting his sister, Officer Abel showed him pictures of a man who had been severely beaten.

"This is what happens when you mess with a cop," he claimed Officer Abel told him, according to a trial transcript.

Mr. Thornton's wife has filed a complaint against Officer Abel with the Citizen Police Review Board. Mr. Stubenrauch and Mrs. Sciubba also have filed complaints with the board.