WINFIELD, W.Va. -- A messy divorce and custody battle in Putnam County Family Court, in which a wife alleges her husband sexually abused two stepdaughters, spilled over into circuit court two weeks ago.

Prosecutors are looking into allegations that Warren Mark Sovine, 40, paid his stepdaughter $20 to show her breasts to a truck driver during a road trip, according to Prosecuting Attorney Mark Sorsaia. 

Sovine was identified through divorce records and accused of sexual abuse through a petition filed in Putnam Circuit Court by his wife, Tammy Sovine.

The petition also alleges Sovine raped a different stepdaughter in 2004, when she was 14. Prosecutors looked into those allegations at the time, but the case was closed a year later for lack of evidence, Sorsaia said.

Sorsaia said prosecutors may have started investigating the flashing incident after Tammy Sovine filed a domestic violence protective order against her husband last year. The prosecutor declined to comment on the progress of the case since then.

Shawn Bayliss, Sovine's lawyer, said the allegations are unfounded and ridiculous.           

"My client denies that he did anything wrong, at any time, to any one of those girls," Bayliss said.

The petition -- a request for an emergency custody hearing for the Sovines' 2-year-old daughter -- was filed in Putnam County two weeks ago.

According to Bayliss, the Sovines separated near the beginning of July. Tammy Sovine took the 2-year-old girl, her husband's truck, the last $500 from his bank account, and went to live with a friend in South Carolina, Bayliss said.

Mark Sovine asked his wife if he could take the girl on vacation in North Carolina at the end of the month. Tammy Sovine agreed to the exchange, apparently unaware that Sovine had filed for divorce a few days before.

Mark Sovine has refused to let his wife see the child since the exchange, Tammy Sovine's petition states.

Also in the petition, Tammy Sovine's lawyer, Mike Clifford, provided letters from two of Sovine's stepchildren, who wrote that Mark Sovine had sexually abused them.

One of the girls wrote that on Oct.21, 2004, she was sitting in the bedroom watching television when Sovine entered and started kissing her. He undressed himself, then undressed the girl, and had sex with her, according to the letter.

Those were the allegations that Sorsaia said were investigated, but police closed the case for lack of evidence.

Sovine could still be investigated and charged with sexual assault depending on what evidence prosecutors find in the recent allegations, Sorsaia said.

"When you review the same individual, we could still press charges," he said.

Another girl wrote in a different letter that Sovine asked her sexually graphic questions during a road trip. On another incident, the girl wrote that Sovine promised to give her $20 if she flashed a truck driver. The girl also wrote that Sovine approached her on another day and handed her $5.

"I asked what it was for," the girl wrote. "He said he saw me in a towel when I had just gotten out of the shower."

Tammy Sovine filed a domestic violence protective order against her husband last September. Family Court Judge William Watkins granted the order, and found that "inappropriate behavior occurred of a sexual nature between Mark and [the girl]."

"The court is not prepared to say exactly what went on, but it did create fear of psychological abuse," the order states.

The order also was attached to Tammy Sovine's petition.

The parties in the petition were referred to as Warren Mark S. and Tammy Ann S. The last names were later revealed through public divorce records. Sorsaia, Clifford, Watkins and Bayliss identified and discussed Sovine as the defendant in interviews. 

According to court records, Mark Sovine has a history of domestic disputes.

Sovine pleaded no contest to charges of grabbing his wife by the hair and then punching her, knocking her across the room in September 2007, according to a criminal complaint filed in Putnam County Magistrate Court. The incident caused Tammy Sovine to go to the hospital, according to the complaint.

In 1998, Mark Sovine was charged with assault after he allegedly struck another man with a baseball bat, according to another complaint filed in Putnam County. Those charges were eventually dropped.

Reach Zac Taylor at Zachary.Tay...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5189.