Reiner Uses Karlin Issue Against Foes : Politics: The district attorney appears in debate before audience of black lawyers.

Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, dipping into a well of support in the black community, Thursday night lambasted his campaign challengers for engaging in “the politics of silence” by failing to speak out against a judge who sentenced a Korean-born grocer to probation in the killing of a black girl.

Reiner made his remarks during a debate before an audience of black lawyers who appeared to respond favorably to his continuing denunciations of the sentence that Superior Court Judge Joyce A. Karlin issued to grocer Soon Ja Du last November.

The district attorney faces a tough reelection campaign in the June primary against two of his veteran deputy prosecutors, Gil Garcetti and Sterling Norris, and Beverly Hills City Councilman Bob Tanenbaum and attorney Howard Johnson.

While his four challengers did not mention the Du sentencing in their opening statements at Thursday’s debate, Reiner wasted no time in bringing up the case, which remains a hot issue in the black community.

Likening his criticism of Karlin to the late President John F. Kennedy’s criticism of the jailing of civil rights leader Martin Luther King in 1960, he turned to his chief opponent, Garcetti, and said:

“Gil has accused me of being political in taking action against Judge Karlin. Well that was not political; that was simple justice.”

The only other candidate to address the case was Norris, who did so in response to a question from the audience. Norris accused Reiner of inflaming the black community and causing “that storming of the Compton courthouse” last year when some protesters smashed through a door in the lobby of the courthouse where Karlin then sat, knocking over a metal detector and causing a minor scuffle.

Norris said Reiner “told the community that that woman was unfit to sit.”

But as he spoke, some members of the audience whispered their agreement with Reiner, saying “She is. “

The debate at the Inglewood Public Library was sponsored by two organizations of black attorneys, the John M. Langston Bar Assn. and the Black Women Lawyers Assn.

Political observers have said that Reiner, who has been district attorney for eight years, may be vulnerable this year because of his office’s failure to win convictions in some high-profile cases. He is also considered vulnerable because he was defeated in the 1990 Democratic primary for state attorney general.

After Karlin’s decision not to send Du to jail, Reiner announced that he would prevent the judge from hearing any future criminal cases through use of a “blanket affidavit” that prosecutors could invoke to seek her automatic removal. He later changed his mind and agreed not to use the affidavit.

In an earlier debate before a group of Mexican-American lawyers, Garcetti branded his boss’s move “an abuse of power . . . for political reasons.” Tanenbaum, a Beverly Hills lawyer and former New York City prosecutor, claimed that Reiner had “pandered to the black community.” Norris, a veteran county prosecutor, called it a crucifixion.

If Reiner is to win the election outright, he must gain a majority of the vote. If no candidate wins the majority, the top two vote-getters will face a runoff in November.