Six months in jail. Douglas Bruce could have gotten a lot more.Facing up to 12 years behind bars for crimes including tax evasion, Bruce was sentenced on Monday to six years of probation and back-to-back 90-day terms in Denver County jail.And the probation includes something the anti-tax crusader isn’t used to: disclosure.

• Doug Bruce: From L.A. lawyer to convicted tax evader

• Noreen: Frankenstein Bruce jailed but monster still at-large

Judge Anne Mansfield read off a long list of requirements that include reporting all of his bank accounts, reporting all his financial transactions, opening all his computer files, and paying for possible therapy. Mansfield said she wanted to make sure Bruce couldn’t be a repeat offender.“It is not my intention to make it impossible for him to make a living. It is my intention that there be absolute transparency about how he does that,” Mansfield told Bruce’s newly-hired lawyer, David Lane.Mansfield gave Bruce less time than Assistant Attorney General Robert Shapiro wanted. He asked the judge to give Bruce two years in prison, but she said given Bruce’s mostly-clean record and that the crime was non-violent, jail time and probation was more appropriate.Bruce has maintained his innocence since he was indicted last April and promised on Monday to appeal his verdict. He criticized Mansfield for sending him to jail.“The verdict is being challenged, but they want to impose the sentence so that I’m punished even if I’m exonerated,” Bruce said. “What are they going to do a year from now when they find out that the trial and the verdict were illegal? How are they going to get me back my 180 days?”In December, jurors convicted Bruce of hiding income using a charity he founded in 2001, called Active Citizens Together, and lying about it to the state Department of Revenue. The charity played a role in a number of Colorado ballot measure campaigns.During the sentencing hearing, Lane, who has played a role in some of Colorado’s most high-profile political cases, argued that Bruce was being victimized by political opponents.“Mr. Bruce probably has the worst relationship with the Department of Revenue as any citizen in the state of Colorado, given his involvement with TABOR,” Lane argued. Bruce authored the Taxpayers Bill of Rights, a government-limiting amendment that was written into the state Constitution in 1992.Mansfield discounted Bruce’s politics and focused on his attitude, which she called “reprehensible.”She said that Bruce was arrogant and self-righteous throughout the trial, and that he had “absolutely no regard for the rule of law.” Mansfield said that the court reporter even found pieces of evidence on the street that Bruce had tossed aside after he was found guilty.She expressed doubt that Bruce could complete his probation, because it requires him to obey strict regulations.“I have serious reservations that Mr. Bruce can be successful, given his nature,” Mansfield said.Bruce is scheduled to turn himself in to the authorities on Friday morning.He was also ordered to pay the prosecution’s expenses, which Shapiro said were roughly $21,000, as well as the taxes and interest he owes the state, which amount to about $28,000.

Douglas Bruce walks toward courtroom 4H at the Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse in Denver for his sentencing hearing on tax evasion charges. Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post Photo by The Denver Post

Kathryn Scott Osler