diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/search/controller/AutocompleteController.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/search/controller/AutocompleteController.java
index 285bf62dd..1c42329d4 100644
--- a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/search/controller/AutocompleteController.java
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/search/controller/AutocompleteController.java
@@ -282,12 +282,19 @@ public class AutocompleteController extends FreemarkerHttpServlet implements Sea
         // of wildcard and non-wildcard queries. The query will look have only an implicit disjunction
         // operator: e.g., +(name:tales name:tales*)
         try {
-            Query query = parser.parse(querystr);
+            // Prevent org.apache.lucene.queryParser.ParseException: 
+            // Cannot parse 'mary *': '*' or '?' not allowed as first character in WildcardQuery     
+            // The * is redundant in this case anyway, so just remove it.
+            log.debug("Query string is '" + querystr + "'");
+            querystr = querystr.replaceAll("([\\s^])[?*]", "$1");
+            log.debug("Cleaned query string is '" + querystr + "'");
+
             log.debug("Adding non-wildcard query for " + querystr);
+            Query query = parser.parse(querystr);  
             boolQuery.add(query, BooleanClause.Occur.SHOULD);
 
-            Query wildcardQuery = parser.parse(querystr + "*");
             log.debug("Adding wildcard query for " + querystr);
+            Query wildcardQuery = parser.parse(querystr + "*");            
             boolQuery.add(wildcardQuery, BooleanClause.Occur.SHOULD);
             
             log.debug("Name query is: " + boolQuery.toString());
diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/search/controller/PagedSearchController.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/search/controller/PagedSearchController.java
index 94c2c3847..89f50e00e 100644
--- a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/search/controller/PagedSearchController.java
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/search/controller/PagedSearchController.java
@@ -278,7 +278,7 @@ public class PagedSearchController extends VitroHttpServlet implements Searcher{
             
             request.getRequestDispatcher(Controllers.BASIC_JSP).forward(request,response);            
         } catch (Throwable e) {
-            log.error("SearchController.doGet(): " + e);            
+            log.error("PagedSearchController.doGet(): " + e, e);            
             doSearchError(request, response, e.getMessage(), null);
             return;
         }
@@ -440,6 +440,14 @@ public class PagedSearchController extends VitroHttpServlet implements Searcher{
                 return null;
             }               
             QueryParser parser = getQueryParser(analyzer);
+            
+            // Prevent org.apache.lucene.queryParser.ParseException: 
+            // Cannot parse 'mary *': '*' or '?' not allowed as first character in WildcardQuery     
+            // The * is redundant in this case anyway, so just remove it.
+            log.debug("Query string is '" + querystr + "'");
+            querystr = querystr.replaceAll("([\\s^])[?*]", "$1");
+            log.debug("Cleaned query string is '" + querystr + "'");
+            
             query = parser.parse(querystr);
 
             String alpha = request.getParameter("alpha");