SHORT TAKES : Judas Priest Trial Hears MD

A young man who entered into a suicide pact after listening to hours of the albums of the rock group Judas Priest believed that the music influenced his actions, a psychiatrist testified today.

Dr. Bruce Tanenbaum said that James Vance “didn’t care if he ever got a dime from the lawsuit” against Judas Priest and CBS Records. Vance, who survived for three years after blowing away his face, “felt other people needed to be aware of the dangers” of the music, said Tanenbaum as the trial ended its second week.

Vance, who was than 20, and his friend Raymond Belknap, then 18, took a shotgun after listening to hours of the record “Stained Class,” drinking beer and smoking marijuana on Dec. 23, 1985. Belknap shot himself and died instantly. Vance shot himself, but survived until he died from complications of the wounds and prescription drugs in November, 1988.

The families claim that subliminal messages on the record telling the young men “Do it” are responsible for the suicide. They are seeking damages that have not yet been specified except for the more than $400,000 in medical bills for Vance.