Douglas Bruce, county Commissioner, indicted & arrested!

[Paths of the Sea]

Douglas Bruce indicted for failing to pay taxes

By The Denver Post
Posted: 04/08/2011 01:42:04 PM MDT
Updated: 04/08/2011 05:17:40 PM MDT

Douglas Bruce, the Colorado Springs anti-tax activist, was indicted today for failing to pay taxes, according to the state Attorney General's office.

A grand jury indicted Bruce, best known as the author of the Taxpayers Bill of Rights or TABOR, for not paying taxes on income he earned in 2005, 2006 and 2007, according to an Attorney General's news release. For instance, the indictment alleges that Bruce filed a false state tax return for 2005, when he reported no taxable income. In fact, Bruce earned hundreds of thousands of dollars that year through interest income and the payoff to him of a real estate loan, the indictment charges.

Bruce did not file state tax returns for 2006 or 2007, according to the indictment, even
though he continued to earn income through interest and as an El Paso County commissioner.

The indictment also accuses Bruce of funneling his income into the accounts of Active Citizens Together, a nonprofit group he created, without reporting it. In conversations with state Revenue Department officials, Bruce described those deposits as donations or loans.

If convicted of the charges, Bruce could face up to six years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

Colorado Springs police officers arrested Bruce Friday at a post office in Colorado Springs. He was booked into the El Paso County Jail on a $10,000 bond, which he later posted. A phone call to his house went unreturned.

Bruce has a level of notoriety in Colorado matched by few activists or politicians.

In addition to authoring TABOR — one of the most consequential ballot initiatives in state history — he also served as a state representative for one session, during which he became the first Colorado legislator ever punished with censure after kicking a news photographer on the session's opening day.

Last year, he resisted repeated attempts — by activists, judges and the state attorney general — to testify about his role in writing and funding three tax-cutting ballot measures. Those initiatives failed at the polls, but a judge later fined Active Citizens Together $11,300 for not reporting what it spent to put the initiatives on the ballot.

On Tuesday, Bruce lost a bid for an at-large Colorado Springs City Council seat, finishing ninth out of 16 candidates. The top 5 were elected to the Council.

[notorial dissent]

Couldn't have happened to a more deserving individual.

[Demosthenes]

Convicted on all counts.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_19594176

[notorial dissent]

Well, well, imagine that. I'll repeat my previous comment here.

I'm not surprised he was pro se, one, he is a nut case of the first water, and two, he is incredibly cheap, and three, and more importantly, I doubt he could find anyone who would go along with his BS.

I hadn't realized it was about so much money, although I knew he had been playing fast and loose with things for years.

I'm sure he thinks "this was the dirtiest trial (he had) seen in 38 years, regardless of the outcome." Considering they told the truth about him, he probably would think it was dirty, and come to think about it, if they told the truth about him, it was pretty dirty, and there would be no reason to lie when the truth was what it was, so very dirty.

If "defendant's contrition and willingness to be rehabilitated" are taken in to consideration at sentencing, he'll be in prison for a long long time. Doug Bruce has always been right and everyone else wrong, and I don't see it changing now.

He was a major embarrassment and constant problem for the mercifully short time he was in the Colorado legislature and constantly being slapped down for offensive and improper behavior, and was probably every bit as bad when he was a county commissioner in El Paso county, and was the arch Republican poster boy until he became too much of an embarrassment for even the El Paso county party to ignore.

Like I said, couldn't happen to a nicer more deserving guy.

[Lambkin]

More of the same from the Colorado Springs paper
http://www.gazette.com/articles/denver- ... -jury.html

Douglas Bruce has gone by many labels: anti-tax crusader, El Paso County commissioner and state lawmaker among them.

He has a couple new ones: Tax cheat. Convicted felon.

[notorial dissent]

"long-winded and contentious" sounds like a good description of the old boy.
I like "Tax cheat.and Convicted felon." even better.

[Lambkin]

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_19946 ... ]Convicted of felony tax evasion and other charges in December, Bruce finds out Monday whether he'll be locked up or granted probation.

"All I will say publicly prior to sentencing is, 'I am innocent. I will appeal. I shall prevail,' " Bruce wrote in response to an interview request.

Bruce's loyalists argued that much of the damage to his reputation has come at the hands of government officials angry about the budget limitations he authored.

"A prophet is not without honor except in his own country," longtime ally and former director of Bruce's Active Citizens Together charity, Douglas Campbell, said, quoting the Bible. "If you can't fight the message, fight the messenger."[/quote]

[Lambkin]

http://www.gazette.com/articles/douglas ... l[quote]It took seven years and lord knows how much money, but they got Douglas Bruce.

The famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) anti-tax crusader, as he’s often called, will be sentenced Monday after having been convicted in December of tax evasion and three other related crimes. He could get up to 12 years in prison, and be fined as much as $750,000.

The conviction was a long time coming. The investigation into Bruce’s finances began in 2004, after someone at the state Department of Revenue took note of a campaign pledge Bruce made during his race for El Paso County commissioner. Bruce promised to donate his $63,000-a-year salary to charity, and that raised a red flag.

The next flag shot up when a department investigator found that Bruce declared zero taxable income on his 2005 tax return and requested a $1,600 refund.[/quote]

[Lambkin]

6 months probation
http://www.gazette.com/articles/bruce-1 ... erage.html

[Demosthenes]

6 months in jail plus 6 years of probation, no?

[Lambkin]

Actually when I posted that, the article just said 6 months probation. Now it's been updated to say 180 days in jail and 6 years probation. Pretty significant difference!

[notorial dissent]

I think he got off remarkably lucky considering how much money was involved, and how big of an ass he is, but I suspect the probation will be a double edged sword, since I think he is constitutionally incapable of following anyone else's rules, and will get violated for probation almost immediately. He is another of the "rules don't apply to me" crowd, and always has been, which is how he got where he is at the moment. The only reason I can think of that they stuck him in the Denver jail was that the sentence was so short. As it is they will have to keep him segregated out of the general population for his own protection I would suspect, and he isn't a young man either, and I have no idea what health issues he may have.