An off-duty Pittsburgh police officer who was arrested and suspended from the force this past weekend in connection with an assault on the South Side already had been facing nearly a dozen charges of misconduct before the city's Citizen Police Review Board.

According to the board's complaint, Officer Paul Abel is accused of starting a fight with his brother-in-law, Muhamid Desmond Thornton, last year at the Allegheny County Courthouse and then lying about the incident to sheriff's deputies who arrested the brother-in-law for the disturbance.

The complaint was filed on behalf of Mr. Thornton's wife.

It also accuses Officer Abel of having a "lack of sound judgment and emotional stability" because he posted his nickname, "Pit Bull," on his personal page on the Web site myspace.com. He wrote on the site that the name was given to him by co-workers because he has a "tendency to knock the [expletive] out of people," the complaint says.

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 Carson Street bar. The gun then went off, wounding the man in his hand.

Officer Abel, an eight-year veteran of the force based at the South Side station, faces assault and drunken driving charges because of the incident. He has been suspended without pay.

Police Chief Nate Harper hopes to complete a disciplinary action report "as quickly as possible," said Diane Richard, a police spokeswoman.

On March 7, 2007, Officer Abel's wife, Cassandra, was at the courthouse testifying against another woman in an assault case at the time of the fight between the officer and her brother, Mr. Thornton.

Officer Abel was waiting in the hall with his wife's three children when Mr. Thornton approached them to say hello. The officer warned him to stay away from the children, and then they started fighting.

Officer Abel suffered bruises and contusions to his face, legs and arms, while Mr. Thornton suffered abrasions.

The review board complaint accuses Officer Abel of being the aggressor and using "coarse" language.

Mr. Thornton faced more than a dozen charges, including aggravated assault on an officer, and he was taken to the Allegheny County Jail.

This year, a jury trial found him not guilty of all charges except disorderly conduct.

"We were surprised that the case could not be resolved short of a trial," said Giuseppe Rosselli, Mr. Thornton's defense attorney.

The review board complaint also says Officer Abel once told an employee at Banksville Elementary School, where two of his stepdaughters are students, that he was "the type of cop that busted down doors and pulled people out by their necks." He was in his police uniform at the time, the complaint says.

Officer Abel attended a hearing before the review board in March. A second hearing has been postponed because of the criminal charges, said Elizabeth Pittinger, the board's executive director.

"We don't want to be in the way of the bureau taking appropriate disciplinary actions," she said.

Saturday's incident started when an unknown man punched Officer Abel as he and his wife sat in their car at a stoplight, Chief Harper told a news conference this past weekend.

While his wife ran back to the Town Tavern to get help from off-duty officers working there, Officer Abel retrieved his gun.

At South 20th and Sidney streets he encountered Kaleb Michael Miller, 20, a pedestrian whose clothing did not match that of the two men who had approached the officer's car. Officer Abel hit Mr. Miller in the head with the butt of his gun, witnesses told police, and the gun went off, striking Mr. Miller's hand.

Mr. Miller was taken to UPMC Presbyterian and was later released.