Last modified: Friday, July 25, 2008 1:51 AM EDT Aaron Fine (Staff photo by Mike George) Fine's family: 'He isn't the same person' BY MICHAEL GELBWASSER SUN CHRONICLE STAFF SHARON - The Mansfield police officer two weeks into a two-month jail term for a traffic accident that killed a 10-year-old Foxboro girl cries so often now, that his family says they barely recognize him. Aaron Fine's parents, Elliott and Manya Fine, and his wife Jean spoke to a Sun Chronicle reporter Thursday for the first time since Aaron Fine was sentenced on June 25. Elliott Fine contacted the newspaper about his 35-year-old son, who was sentenced to two years in the House of Correction, with two months to serve, for negligent operation of a motor vehicle in the Dec. 2, 2006 fatal collision between Fine's landscaping truck and Rosie Shatz, 10, who was riding her bicycle just a few feet from her home at 83 Willow St. "He cries about Rosie Shatz. He cries about the world. He is being brutalized, and he won't let go," Elliott Fine said during an interview in his Sharon law office. Aaron Fine's wife visits the jail Friday nights, and his mother visits on Sundays, Elliott Fine said. Fine also speaks to his parents, his wife and his two young children, ages 3 and 7, on a special list of those accepting collect calls. "It's heart-breaking. Our heart is broken because I feel I have lost my child, also. He isn't the same person," Manya Fine said. "It's hell on Earth." Last Friday, Shatz's parents, Clifford Shatz and Joni Block, and another relative told the state Parole Board they opposed Aaron Fine's bid for early parole - and the board concurred. The couple also has sent letters to the news media and Mansfield town officials opposing Fine's reinstatement to the Mansfield Police Department. Fine is on administrative leave. Elliott Fine declined to say if he expected Mansfield Police Chief Arthur O'Neill to reinstate his son. "The paper has said it's up to the chief. I don't know anything more than that," Elliott Fine said. After a jury-waived trial, Superior Court Judge Paul Chernoff found Aaron Fine guilty May 22 of driving his family's landscaping truck negligently and without the proper license for the size of the truck he was driving. Chernoff acquitted Fine of the lead charge of motor vehicle homicide by negligent operation, but issued a special memorandum stating that, had this been a civil rather than a criminal case, "this judge would find that it is more probable than not" that Fine's negligence caused the child's death. Elliott Fine said 76 letters of support for his son were submitted to Chernoff. Fine also noted that in 2006, O'Neill recognized his son, "a workaholic," for having the most drunken-driving arrests of any patrol officer that year. Fine was also the Mansfield Police Union president at the time. "Aaron's worked hard. He wants to be a police officer. That means more to him than anything else he would do," Elliott Fine said. Jean Fine, Aaron's wife, said her husband's imprisonment has been especially hard on their 7-year-old daughter, who writes him letters and makes him cards. The girl breaks down at least once a day, "bawling," Jean Fine said. "She doesn't understand why he had to leave," she said. "She's fine on the phone with him. And then when she hangs up with him, she starts to cry." Jean Fine said she doesn't recognize her husband when they talk. A couple of times on the phone, "we'll just be talking about the weather, and all of a sudden, he'll start to cry," she said. "He's emotional, and normally he's not an emotional person," she said. "He's not usually a crier." MICHAEL GELBWASSER can be reached at 508-236-0439 or at mgelbwasser@thesunchronicle.com.