fios. a network ahead. from wjz13 this is maryland's news station. now eyewitness news magazine. hello everyone i'm vic carter. caught on tape, it seems that everyone has a camera and when police make an arrest, there's a good chance someone is recording. tonight wjz investigates between cops and cameras. one maryland man who's taking police to court. a young woman's arrest caught on tape at the preakness. >> someone is taking pictures, they're taking pictures. >> reporter: a motorcyclists on i35 records his own arrest on

his helmet cam. and a man's friend records this. >> sit down, sit down i'm not a dude. >> reporter: it seems that everyone has a camera and they're recording the police. >> is that camera on? >> reporter: who don't want to be recorded. >> are you able to tape anybody's voice or anything else. >> reporter: despite what police officers have been telling people, it's not illegal to record police officers in a public place but too many officers don't see it that way. >> turn that off. >> it's the constitutional right of the person taking that that video to the court. >> reporter: cindy with aclu has filed a lute for confiscating -- filed a lawsuit for a police officer who confiscated a video. >> reporter: is it your opinion that the police officers don't know that what they're doing isn't proper? >> i think the police are you know on notice that this is the interpretation that the courts are giving, it's hard for them to pretend that they don't understand that. >> take the wall. >> reporter: police officers confronted shaw, forced him to

give up his phone and took it as evidence. >> why did you give up your phone? >> i was certain i was going to go to jail. i was surrounded by police officers who were telling me i had to give my phone up. >> reporter: that afternoon, he got his phone back from police but all of his pictures and videos were gone. >> all of the pictures were gone. >> all of his son's pictures and pictures from the preakness were gone. since almost everyone has a cell phone with a camera, those videos can go virus. robert altman is a former police officer. he says officers need to be able to focus on their job and cameras can't interfere. >> you're there doing your job. and the next thing you know somebody is just, you know filming you. is that going to be a distraction? because i'm not looking at more than one thing. >> reporter: the aclu says that's no excuse to violate the first amendment. >> they are trying to discourage citizens to hold them accountable for their actions.

>> i think officers have to say we're in the open domain, it's happening all the time. you have to adjust your behavior and adjust your response accordingly. >> reporter: the lawsuit seeks changes in police policy, in training so that officers understand the law. >> at some point this has to stop. >> if this is happening to me, i can't imagine what's happened to other people. >> reporter: lawyers for the baltimore city department say they are in discussion with the aclu to resolve sharp's lawsuit. they say that they are in the process of writing more comprehensive policies. killed in college, it's happened again and again to maryland families including that of congressman elijah cummings who's nephew was murdered. what parents can do to keep their children safe. >> reporter: christopher

cummings honor student at old dominion university gunned down while sleeping. >> he was virtually executed. >> reporter: love budgened to rage. all three killed by someone in rage. each year violent crime strikes college students. >> my family had never experienced a death like this. >> reporter: maryland congressman elijah cummings a powerful voice in washington says he can't get over the loss of his nephew. a young boy he loved as his own son. >> they are going on with their lives, happy, the next thing you know they're dead. >> reporter: studying criminal science, hoping to go into public service just like his uncle elijah. he was living in a house in norfolk with two fraternity no r connect 57600

and says [captioning difficulties ] the investigation to the murder of congressman cummings nephew is still under investigation. the day the earth shook literally. the earthquake was felt for hundreds of miles. hear the people who helped

the drugs that marylanders abuse is prescription drugs. jessica cartalia talks with a former addict who almost lost her child so she could get high. >> reporter: elkton maryland, population 16,000, a little town with a big problem. a hot bed for prescription drug abuse. >> it's so bad here, like very, very bad. >> reporter: prescription painkillers once ruled her life, now 22-year-old stephanie barry is clean raising her young son in the cecil county town of elktin. >> when did you think you realized you had hit rock bottom? >> when i lost every, my son was with my mother. i lost my home, my car, i had no job. i had nothing.

>> reporter: stephanie was part of an alarming trend, over the past decade the number of people living in cecil county admitted to treatment centers for prescription drug abuse skyrocketed almost 800%. that's nearly double the percentage statewide. >> everything is irrelevant, nothing else matters. >> reporter: your son didn't matter? >> at a point, no he didn't. and that killed me. like i lived with that guilt for a long time. i still do. i look and i'm like, that's my baby. and i gave him up. >> reporter: stephanie's story echoes throughout maryland. harford county up almost 130%. carol county up almost 600%. clearly there's an explosion in prescription drug use.

>> they are more abused than heroin, extasy, marijuana combined. that's huge. >> reporter: with easy access to i95 and multiple prescriptions, addicts can quickly travel to pharmacies out of the area in washington, philadelphia without being caught. elkton is a convenient home base. some say the problem has gotten so bad that you can literally walk down the street here in elkton and get your hands on any prescription drug you want. >> it'll take me 20 minutes time to have at least one to get started then it's very easy. >> reporter: maryland is taking aim at prescription drug abuse with a new computerized system to track who's writing pain killing prescription and who's filling them. >> i think you need a more vigilant program in every physicians office and hospital and emergency room to help to thwart this abuse. >> did drugs ruin your life? >> yes they did.

what i had, it ruined it. >> jessica cartalia, wjz eyewitness news. maryland's prescription drug monitoring program is scheduled to start next july with a focus on helping addicts get treatment rather than alerting police. a quake in maryland was felt. imagine the fear in tourists at the top of a monument. >> reporter: august 23rd, 1:51 p.m. an earthquake shakes the east coast. on a sunny afternoon the earth shakes. panic callers flood 911 centers as the buildings begin to shake. >> my house was shaking. >> reporter: it's bad enough on the ground, but look what it's

like inside the tallest monument in washington. >> i begin to hear noises coming from the elevator, noises i had never heard before. i start to see the public looking at me and they're wondering what's going on. the walls on the elevator are metal so they start to shake. >> reporter: she jumps to action trying to open an emergency door. helping tourists get out safely while chunks of marble were coming down. >> reporter: what was your initial thoughts? >> my initial thought was we were under some kind of attack. >> reporter: were you thinking the top of the tower was going to crumble with you inside. >> as we're coming down the tower, it's shaking so hard it knocks me into the railing. i'm looking at the blocks wondering if they're going to stay in front of me or they're going to fall as well. it's a building with no mortar. there's nothing holding those

stones together. >> reporter: hundreds of stones were damaged. one of washington's most famous landmarks suffering far more damage than originally thought. specially trained engineers repelled the perimeter discovering cracks wide enough to see through and chunks of stone that is dangerously lose. after everything is repaired the monument is closed. and park ranger williams will never be the same. >> reporter: when you look back at the video, what's your reaction to it? >> i started to physically shake. i was terrified when that building started to move. >> reporter: realizing when a few seconds can save your life. adam may, wjz news. >> ranger williams was so move bid this experience she may join the park services search and rescue team. still to come on this edition of evening news magazine, is the fish you eat safe? maybe not if it's coming from overseas. wjz investigates the potential risk and what some maryland fishermen are doing about it. locked in a libyan prison,

maryland's matthew van dyke gained national attention when he joined the fighting lines. today he opens up to denise koch. >> freedom fighter? >> i wasn't going to stand by and watch my friends die. >> reporter: or notorious, van dyke says his commitment came from forging deep friendships. >> my friends were telling me about family members being arrested or disappearing or being injured. >> reporter: why did you go to libya. >> they would say to me things like why doesn't anybody help us.

so i said i would be there. >> reporter: matthew a documentary film maker leaves his home to fight alongside his rebel friends determined to overthrow gadhafi. but after a few weeks, progadhafi forces ambush matthew. >> did you assume they were going to kill you? >> i worried about being executed. >> reporter: instead, matthew is thrown in prison spending 5- 1/2 months in solitary confinement in a four by 7-foot cell. >> what did you do to keep yourself sane? >> i sang guns and roses song. i tried to name star trek characters that i could think of. it was absolutely horrifying. i would have rather they take me out and beat me every day. >> reporter: matthew had no idea libya was about to fall. >> they came down the hall and bust the lock out of my cell and i'm prepared to die. >> were you begging for your life? >> i was not going to let gadhafi and the satisfaction of hearing that the american was crying or something when he

killed him. the guy who opened it said gadhafi is finished, gadhafi is finished. i said that's impossible. i think all of us were pretty much in shock. you could hear gunfire. you know it was still a dangerous situation. >> reporter: but then matthew makes a decision many still question. despite the work by his mother, girlfriend, congressmen to win his freedom he stays in libya. >> at the moment you got out, you were released. why not come home? what made you decide to stay? >> i was prepared to kill for freedom. i think what is in question is, why am i the only one that went to libya to help. it's not to me strange that i went, it's strange that nobody else went. >> reporter: a joyous rejuneon for family and friends this weekend at bwi airport as matthew finally returned home from a battle few understand. >> people who criticize me, they are free to do so. the freedom to do that is what

i was fighting for in libya. fish caught overseas ends up on your dinner table with no one guaranteeing its safety. why is this allowed to happen? adam may reports the potential risk. >> reporter: when you think maryland you think seafood. but now a crisis decades of overfishing and pouchers stealing tons of fish means some species may have disappeared. calls for an increased demand. >> imported seafood is not safe to eat. >> reporter: wjz obtain third- degree video from a food safety watchdog group reportedly taped at a food farm in asia.

you're looking at contaminated water. >> they pack hundreds of fish in cages, in order to keep it healthy, they dump animal drugs. many of those drugs are not approved in the united states. >> reporter: imported seafood may contain drug residue that can cause cancer. 90% of seafood is not inspected. despite the disparity and oversight, the national fishery's institute defends the safety of the imported seafood. >> this is part of a food safety scare. >> reporter: if you went to the store and saw some fish that says imported from china, you would have no problem eating it

and serving it to your family? >> absolutely not. and i do. >> reporter: claude thinks he found his answer, raising his own fish on maryland's east shore. >> reporter: how is what you're doing here different from what they're doing overseas. >> overseas they're raising their fish in contaminated sewer water. >> reporter: sewer water? you mean the fish we're consuming is raised in sewer water. >> reporter: his way is more expensive than cheaper imported fish. if american fish farmers can't compete, anderson issues this warning. >> we will continue to live on what they are shipping which is polluted food. >> reporter: polluted food. >> that's right. >> many grocery stores are labeling their fish to show

one last gift, the sudden deft of a pasadena teenager outside a carnal this summer teaches a family a life lesson about oregon donation. today jessica cartalia tells us

a girl's story. >> reporter: a scene of unspeakable horror her father can't forget. he rushs to the scene of the accident. >> i was sitting there waiting for them to bring her out of the ambulance. i already knew she was gone. >> reporter: after a night of fun at the carnival, cara and her boyfriend headed to their car crossing busy richie highway. the x now marks where cara died. >> reporter: a gift of life, cara's family is now able to talk about her death. her father, aunt and little brother speak only to wjz about what she thought them. >> she said she wanted to be an organ donor. i said no, they're not going to cut on you. i said if something happens to you i'm not going to let them cut on you. >> reporter: they argue that cara was determined so they gave in. her father says, it's almost

like she knew something was going to happen to her. >> she said, what good would they do me? i'll be gone. >> she called me four minutes prior, so i'm thankful that i got to tell her i loved her. >> reporter: in death cara saved the lives of seven other people all because of the choice she made the year before. the organ donation program living legacies says cara's father carried through on her commitment. >> knowing her intention, knowing her wish was also what drove him to say yes. >> reporter: 200 people could die waiting for a transplant but only half of all adults in our state are signed up to donate. >> we're not meeting the need. >> reporter: what is the biggest myth when it comes to organ donation. >> there's a fear that i may not be treated in the same way if i have a very devastating and they know i'm a donor. their goal is to fight until the very end.

>> her heart is still beating out there. we may not know where it is or who's got it, but her heart is still beating. >> it's nice to see that they can save somebody else, and i love her for it. it's still hard. knowing that she's gone. >> reporter: right now more than 112,000 people are waiting for an organ. each day 18 of them will die waiting. most people sign up to be organ donors at the motor vehicle but you can also go online to the donate life maryland website to make this powerful gift. and that's it for this edition of eyewitness news magazine. thanks for joining us, i'm vic carter. have a good night.