Thursday is Douglas Bruce’s last day of freedom for the next six months. At 8:30 a.m. Friday, Bruce will surrender to a Denver district court to begin a 180-day stint in Denver County Jail.

The sentence was handed down Monday by Judge Anne Mansfield as part of his sentence for tax evasion and three other tax-related crimes. Mansfield gave Bruce six years of probation, including 90 days for tax evasion and 90 days for filing a false tax return, both Class 5 felonies.

The two jail terms will be served consecutively.

SEE LINK: Doug Bruce, from LA lawyer to convicted tax evader

As another part of Bruce’s probation is that all of his financial dealings will be open for the Economic Crime Unit, which will supervise him. Bruce has to disclose all of his bank accounts, investments, debts, and so on, and must report all new contracts and business dealings he’s entering.

Bruce will also have to open up all his computer files to probation officers, and if anyone moves in with Bruce, he’ll have to disclose their financial records, as well.

And Bruce will be required to pay for any financial consultant probation officers may hire to look at his records, and for any therapy or victim empathy group officers may require him to attend.

“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 said during the sentencing hearing.

She warned Bruce that if he violates any part of his parole, he could be sent to prison. And she said she was dubious that Bruce will be able to make it six years. She said he had proven during the trial that he had “no regard for the rule of law,” and that his attitude was “reprehensible.”

“I have serious reservations that Mr. Bruce can be successful, given his nature,” Mansfield said. “His behavior is used as a way to gauge the likelihood of his success on probation.”

Mansfield went relatively light on Bruce. For his crimes, she could have given him 12 years in prison and fined him $700,000. No fine was included in his sentence, but Mansfield did order Bruce to pay the cost of the attorney general’s prosecution and the amount of taxes he owes the state. That amounts to just under $50,000.

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