TOWN HALL: Doug Bruce could get the last laugh (poll)

Anti-tax crusader Douglas Bruce owed the state about $10,000 in taxes on unreported interest from a loan.

Bruce was convicted for tax evasion after putting on a defense that should become the textbook example of why he who represents himself has a fool for a client. Bruce showed up late for court all but one day of trial, disrespecting the judge and jurors. He talked down to jurors in his “I’m-the-smartest-person-in-the-room” style. He came across as a self-important clown. It’s as if he wanted jail time.

On Friday, Bruce checked into the Denver County Jail for a 180-day visit. It’s not his first stay in that jail. He was convicted of a misdemeanor, involving a property dispute with Denver, and spent about a week there in the 1990s.

While waiting for his sentence Monday, Bruce enjoyed a Slurpee. By all appearances and public statements, he seemed unfazed and almost gleeful afterwards. Minutes after the the sentence came down, he quipped: “They will have my body, but they will not have my soul.” In his typically calm, cool and arrogant manner, on his way to jail, Bruce tried insulting a reporter. The Gazette’s John Schroyer asked Bruce how he would pass the time. Bruce replied: “Avoiding your phone calls.”

As quoted in the Denver Post, he said: “There have been other political prisoners... if they want to put me in that company, it’s an unwitting compliment.”

Cheaters only enhance the tax burden on widows and old ladies, the sympathetic parties Bruce speaks of when complaining about high taxes. We generally trust the criminal justice system and will assume the jurors did their jobs and ruled in favor of truth. So it appears Bruce cheated on his taxes and for that he must pay and pay big.

Here’s the part some Bruce opponents may not want to hear: Jail time is stupid in this case.

“If he were not Douglas Bruce, the state would have contacted him and said ‘we have a problem with your tax return, there is a $10,000 shortfall and we need to talk about collecting,” said David Lane, a famous lawyer Bruce hired to argue his appeal. “Instead, they targeted him and went to a grand jury with this thing without even talking to him and making a serious effort to collect. That is extraordinary, especially when you’re talking about $10,000.”

Lane probably doesn’t support Bruce’s crusade against government taxes. By some indications, Lane leans left. He took the case for the same reason he represented former University of Colorado Professor Ward Churchill, a far-left activist who was fired from CU after writing and talking in defense of the Sept. 11 attacks on our country.

Lane represented Churchill in a lawsuit that claimed CU officials targeted the professor because they did not like his scandalous views. Churchill and Lane prevailed.

“Ward Churchill was fired for his views,” Lane said. “Douglas Bruce was tried and sent to jail, when anyone else would have simply been forced to pay the taxes along with some fines. It is selective prosecution in retaliation for his thoughts and exercises of free speech.”

Was the prosecution of Douglas Bruce politically motivated? Vote in poll to the right. Must vote to see results.

Oddly, for a minor financial crime, Bruce was not even fined. Maybe Lane is correct. Perhaps this wasn’t about money. Heck, government is barely injured by a $10,000 shortfall. This may have been about finally getting Douglas Bruce and treating him like a common criminal — not a small-time tax cheat — because Bruce has been a pain in the arse. Even his supporters find that he is hard to befriend. As the author of Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, a law enacted by voters, he has made life difficult for politicians and state employees.

“Douglas Bruce is doing six months for his personality,” Lane said.

Worst of all — for those who don’t like what Bruce stands for — jail will motivate him, sharpen his skills and make him a bigger foe of local and state government. That’s what happened after his last jail stay. He sought revenge. He decided to stop at nothing in his quest to bring government to its knees, and on several occasions he prevailed. Among his supporters, Bruce is viewed as a martyr and a political prisoner when authority confines him.

“They can put me anywhere they want, for as long as they want,” Bruce said on his way to jail. “They want to put me in a cell. What is that going to accomplish?”

Not much. This was a small-time tax crime and could have been handled as such. The state should have collected from Bruce and fined him. Instead, he was sent away to read books at our expense. All over $10,000 bucks. Bruce may get the last laugh, again.

That's our view. What's yours? Please initiate or join in a Facebook discussion below, and vote in poll to the upper right.

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