Murphy owns at least three homes, according tosources and government clerks in three counties.

His home in Somerville, on a 2,800 square-footlot, is valued at $144,100, according to the cityclerk's office. Another Murphy home, on NewHampshire's Atlantic coast, is worth in theneighborhood of $80,000, according to countyrecords there. Murphy also may have a stake in acottage in southern Florida, sources say.

Questions about Cavalier's founding resurfacedrecently when Libby applied for statecertification as a woman-owned business. Suchcertification helps businesses win governmentcontracts designated for companies owned by womenor minorities.

The certification process is usually a simplematter of offering proof that at least 51 percentof the business is owned by a woman or minority.Libby has said she is the sole owner of Cavalier.

But an official at the state office of minoritybusiness held up Libby's certification for weeks,sources say, because the Cavalier owner could notaccount for how the company was founded.

One source says Libby told the state she hadstarted Cavalier with a $450 loan from her mother.

According to Lynn Wachtel, the executivedirector of the state office of minority business,Cavalier eventually won certification as awoman-owned business, Sources say documentssubmitted by Libby finally cleared up the matter.

Those documents were signed by a public notary.The notary's name?

Harvard Police Lt. Lawrence J. Murphy.