Small-government rabble-rouser and convicted tax evader Douglas Bruce received a sentence Monday of 180 days in jail followed by strict probation, and on the same day, prosecutors announced that the IRS requested copies of the evidence against him.

First Assistant Attorney General Robert Shapiro said he handed over the case file Monday but doesn’t know whether federal authorities will launch their own investigation into Bruce and his now-defunct charity, Active Citizens Together (ACT).

Bruce’s sentencing drew the curtain on a rare criminal tax-evasion case at the state level, and one Bruce could have potentially avoided had he cooperated with the Department of Revenue.

Denver District Judge Anne Mansfield commented on Bruce’s “reprehensible” behavior during the trial and wondered aloud whether he could last six years on a strict form of probation that will lay bare for authorities every last detail of Bruce’s finances.

“It was apparent during the trial itself, the defendant had absolutely no regard for the rule of law,” Mansfield said. “His behavior is used to gauge his likelihood of success on probation. It requires abiding by strict rules. I have serious reservations Bruce can be successful.”

Mansfield said that Bruce’s age, 62, the nonviolent nature of his crimes and the fact he’s a first-time felon ultimately outweighed his courtroom antics.

The famously cantankerous father of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights — or TABOR amendment — called himself a political prisoner and will begin his incarceration in Denver County Jail on Friday.

“How will they give me my 180 days back?” Bruce asked. “There have been other political prisoners. On a very small scale … if they want to put me in that company, it’s an unwitting compliment.”

A jury convicted Bruce in December of attempting to influence a public servant, tax evasion and filing a false tax return — all felonies.

Those charges are related to a tiny fraction of the interest earned on the $2 million that Bruce put into ACT, the 501(c)(3) he founded in 2001.

Bruce didn’t report that interest — about $10,000 — as income on his 2005 state return, even though he freely spent ACT money on his own personal, political agenda, Shapiro said.

Following his sentencing, Bruce called the idea that he would give away $2 million to a charity to avoid $10,000 in state taxes “incredible.”

The IRS, he said, already has exonerated him, referring to a years-old letter from the federal agency stating he owed no taxes for 2005.

“I’ve got nothing to hide,” Bruce said.

Beyond the courtroom drama, Bruce’s case is unusual in that it was prosecuted at all, according to Mark Couch, spokesman for the state Department of Revenue.

His agency handles tens of thousands of cases of income-tax evasion each year, and nearly all of them are resolved through a civil process that allows scofflaws to pay up without charges being filed.

Couch estimates about 45 cases a year are referred for criminal prosecution to the AG’s office or district attorneys.

“It’s fairly rare these cases end up in court,” Couch said.

Bruce forfeited his chance to avoid prosecution when he failed to respond for three years to the state Revenue Department’s 2006 request for more information about his 2005 return, Shapiro said.

Shapiro believes Bruce was trying to run the clock on the statute of limitations for his crime without realizing state law grants an extension for tax crimes.

The delay cost him.

“When this case was first brought to us by the Department of Revenue, it appeared to be a high-level failure-to-file case,” Shapiro said. “What became apparent is that Douglas Bruce … was the central figure of a tax-avoidance and -manipulation scheme.”

The statute-of-limitations play wasn’t Bruce’s only attempt at deception, Shapiro said. Bruce told jurors there was a memo circulating at the attorney general’s office that read “Get Doug Bruce.”

It actually said “Get Doug Bruce file.”

But “getting” Doug Bruce is just what the state was out to do, according to Bruce’s attorney, David Lane, who stepped in to handle the sentencing hearing after Bruce represented himself at trial.

“This case does not arise in a vacuum. Doug Bruce is not someone who was randomly audited by the state, someone who is not known to the state,” Lane said. “Mr. Bruce probably has the worst relationship with the Department of Revenue of any citizen in Colorado. There are those … primarily in government, who view Doug Bruce as satanic.”

Jessica Fender: 303-954-1244 or jfender@denverpost.com

