Judas Priest Plaintiffs to Challenge Ruling

Attorneys for the families of two youths who attempted suicide after listening to an album by the British rock band Judas Priest say they will challenge a judge’s ruling that absolved the group of responsibility.

Attorney Vivian Lynch said that she and co-counsel Ken McKenna would file post-trial motions by Tuesday to challenge the court’s decision. “These usually aren’t granted and, if not, I will appeal” to the Nevada Supreme Court, said Lynch, who represented one of the families.

Lynch said she believes Washoe District Judge Jerry Carr Whitehead, who heard the case without a jury, put too much of a burden of proof on the plaintiffs and too little on lawyers for the band and CBS Records in his decision last week.

The families of James Vance and Raymond Belknap claimed that subliminal messages on the 1978 album “Stained Class” drove the youths to shoot themselves with shotguns two days before Christmas 1985. Belknap, 18, died immediately and Vance, then 20, severely damaged himself and died three painful years later.