Judge Who Sentenced Grocer May Be Cleared : Courts: State judicial panel closes investigation of Karlin without announcing outcome or contacting her. The commission apparently concludes she acted properly.

A state judicial probe into the conduct of Superior Court Judge Joyce A. Karlin--who sparked an uproar when she sentenced a Korean-born grocer to probation in the killing of a black girl--has concluded, apparently clearing the judge of any wrongdoing.

In a terse, one-page statement released Friday, the state Commission on Judicial Performance said it had closed its investigation into complaints about Karlin, but would not disclose the outcome. However, a spokesman for Karlin said the judge believes she has been cleared because the commission did not notify her of any discipline.

“They said it was closed, period,” said Bob Stiens, who is managing Karlin’s election campaign for the June 2 primary. “We are assuming that if there was any action to be taken that she would have been notified and asked for explanations.”

Stiens said Karlin was never interviewed about the complaints, which were brought by the Latasha Harlins Justice Committee, named for the 15-year-old girl who was killed by Korean-born grocer Soon Ja Du during a fight over a bottle of orange juice in the Du family’s South-Central Los Angeles market in March, 1991.

“It does not surprise us,” Denise Harlins, Latasha’s aunt, said of the commission’s announcement Friday. “That commission is made of judges, and you know judges. They side with judges.”

Harlins said her committee is pressing the U.S. Justice Department to investigate whether Du violated Latasha’s civil rights, and intends to file another complaint with the judicial performance panel, which has the authority to impose discipline ranging from private reprimands to requesting that the state Supreme Court remove a judge from office.

In filing its initial complaint, the committee alleged that Karlin had allowed race to enter her decision-making process, that she showed “disrespect to minorities” during the trial and that she “showed more concern, courtesy and kindness” toward Du than toward the family of the victim.

The Du case exacerbated tensions between blacks and Korean-Americans in Los Angeles, and was mentioned frequently when those tensions erupted during recent riots in Los Angeles. Although Du faced a maximum of 16 years in prison after being convicted of voluntary manslaughter, Karlin sentenced her to a 10-year suspended prison term with five years of probation, 400 hours of community service and a $500 fine.

The sentence sparked a wave of protests in the black community. In its aftermath, the judge was transferred to Juvenile Court. Karlin, who now faces a tough election campaign, is also the target of a recall effort.

Although Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner appealed Du’s sentence, Karlin’s ruling was upheld last month by a higher court. Last week, Reiner asked the 2nd District Court of Appeal for a rehearing in the case--the first move toward bringing the appeal to the state Supreme Court.