Karlin to Remain on Criminal Bench : Courts: Judge who sentenced grocer to probation for fatal shooting won’t be reassigned, despite hints from Reiner.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joyce A. Karlin--who has been under fire since she ordered probation for a Korean-born grocer who killed a black girl--will remain on the criminal bench, despite heavy hints from the district attorney that she would be reassigned.

The announcement that Karlin would continue to hear criminal cases in Compton was made Wednesday by Presiding Judge Ricardo A. Torres, who said he never had any intention of reassigning the newly-appointed judge.

Torres’ decision capped three days of intense speculation about Karlin’s future, beginning Monday when Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner suggested that Karlin might be moved off the criminal bench as part of Torres’ annual judicial reshuffling.

But on Wednesday, Torres made it clear that he was not going to bow to Reiner’s wishes. Asked if he had made any agreement with the district attorney, he put his thumb and forefinger together to make a zero, indicating there was never a deal between them.

“I don’t manage the Superior Court that way,” the presiding judge said. He added: “You want good Superior Courts in the County of Los Angeles or do you want your courts intimidated?”

Karlin, as she has throughout the controversy, declined comment.

Reiner, meanwhile, issued a terse statement saying simply that he was “disappointed” by Torres’ decision. He was not in his office and his spokeswoman said he would have no further comment.

Reiner himself has been the target of criticism for his handling of the events surrounding the sentencing of grocer Soon Ja Du. Last week, he denounced the sentence and said he had ordered prosecutors to use “affidavits of removal” to disqualify Karlin from every criminal case that came before her. When that plan drew accusations that Reiner was trying to control the judiciary, the district attorney withdrew it, stating that he would still use the affidavits against her, but on a case-by-case basis.

At the same time, Reiner suggested that the affidavit controversy might resolve itself if Karlin were reassigned. The next day, Reiner raised the reassignment issue again, saying: “Tomorrow there will be assignments . . . and I think it will be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction.”

His remarks left black community leaders, who have been protesting the Du sentence, with the distinct impression that Karlin would be transferred, possibly to the civil courts. Wednesday morning, as they gathered in downtown Compton for a rally to protest the sentence, they found out otherwise.

The crowd of several hundred protesters booed and moaned “Noooooo!” when Brotherhood Crusade leader Danny Bakewell announced that Karlin would remain on the criminal bench. Bakewell said Torres’ decision “adds insult to injury” and vowed to mount a campaign to oust Karlin from the criminal bench when she faces election next year.

“Torres is not standing up for black people,” declared Bakewell, “and we’ve got to make him part of the problem.”

State Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles), who was also attending the rally, told the crowd: “To blatantly throw in our face a reassignment back in the criminal courts is an insult to all of us. . . . She (Karlin) was wrong in her decision. Torres is wrong in his decision. The law is not being applied fairly.”

On Nov. 15, Karlin--a 40-year-old former federal prosecutor who has been on the Superior Court bench for about two months--sentenced Du, 50, to five years’ probation, a $500 fine and 400 hours of community service in the killing of 15-year-old Latasha Harlins.

Gina Rae, a spokeswoman for Harlins’ family, said Wednesday: “I think that this (the decision to keep Karlin on the criminal bench) goes along with the rest of the travesty of justice and the unfairness and the insensitivity to the killing of this child. Nothing surprises me anymore because there is a double standard for black life.”

Harlins was shot in the back of the head after she and Du struggled over a $1.79 bottle of orange juice. The grocer claimed the girl was trying to steal the juice, but a security camera videotape--which became the most dramatic piece of evidence in Du’s trial--showed that the girl had put the juice on the counter and was walking away when she was shot.

The tape shows Harlins, who witnesses said had stuck the bottle halfway into her backpack and had money in her hand, approaching the counter. Then Du is seen grabbing Harlins’ sweater, and Harlins punches Du several times in the face. Du hurls a stool at the girl, who sets the juice on the counter and turns to walk away and then is shot.

In sentencing Du, Karlin said she did not believe the grocer was a threat to society, and said she hoped the tragedy would be used to further understanding between blacks and Korean-Americans. “It is not a time for revenge,” Karlin said then. “It should be a time of healing.”

Instead, the sentence sparked an immediate outcry among black community leaders, who vowed to picket Karlin’s Manhattan Beach house and drive her from the bench. Reiner denounced it as “a stunning miscarriage of justice” and vowed to appeal.

On Wednesday, another group, the John M. Langston Bar Assn., which represents 900 black lawyers and judicial officers, held a press conference to add its voice to the chorus opposing the Du sentence.

George Mallory, president of the organization, said his group “supports and applauds” Reiner’s effort to keep Karlin from hearing other criminal cases.

He said Reiner’s policy “may ultimately become the only meaningful sanction that Judge Karlin will endure in an attempt to correct the injustice in the Latasha Harlins case.”