BOSTON -- A former manager at the Dorchester postal center was sentenced Wednesday to 15 months in jail for lying to investigators about his involvement in the alleged sexual assault of a postal worker.

The U.S. Attorney's office said John R. Kelly, 46, of Saugus, Mass., was sentenced on two counts of perjury and one count of a scheme to falsify information about a sex assault on a postal employee that took place in September 2000.

Kelly was working as an acting manager at the postal facility when a female worker claimed that he sexually harrassed her and later assaulted her in the facility's boiler room.

Kelly denied ever having any contact with the woman during a subsequent investigation. She later sued him in Federal District Court, where DNA evidence revealed that a semen sample found in the boiler room belonged to Kelly.

A civil jury found Kelly liable for the sexual battery and the woman was awarded a $600,000 settlement, although Kelly hasn't paid any portion of the judgement, the U.S. attorney's office said.