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DEDHAM - An off-duty Mansfield police officer was sentenced this afternoon to two years in jail - but will have to serve just two months in the House of Correction - in connection with a fatal accident in December 2006, when his landscaping truck struck a 10-year-old Foxboro girl who was riding her bicycle.

Aaron Fine was charged with negligent operation of a motor vehicle.

The balance of Fine's sentence from Dedham Superior Court Judge Paul A. Chernoff was suspended for six years with supervised probation. Special conditions on Fine's probation include mental health counseling, abstaining from driving for four months and 600 hours of community service.

There is also no-contact order with the family of the young victim, Rose Shatz.

Fine, teary-eyed throughout most of the sentencing, read a statement saying that many people told him they felt sorry for him. "I don't want them to feel sorry for me," he told the court, "but want them to remember Rose and keep her memory alive forever."

The judge put off the sentence for 14 days so Fine can make personal arrangements.

On May 22, Chernoff acquitted Fine of vehicular homicide, the most serious charge, after a three-day jury-waived trial.

Fine was driving a landscaping truck owned by Fine Landscaping, his family's company, when he struck Shatz just a few feet from her 83 Willow St. home on Dec. 2, 2006.

Shatz died in her father's arms.

Shatz's parents, Clifford Shatz and Joni Block, did not attend the sentencing.

Fine has been on unpaid leave from the Mansfield police department.

"There are no winners" in this case, Fine's attorney, Daniel O'Malley of Quincy, said after the proceedings.