diff --git a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/playground/gatk/walkers/variants/VECHomopolymer.java b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/playground/gatk/walkers/variants/VECHomopolymer.java
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..03e5aadbf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/playground/gatk/walkers/variants/VECHomopolymer.java
@@ -0,0 +1,117 @@
+package org.broadinstitute.sting.playground.gatk.walkers.variants;
+
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.gatk.LocusContext;
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.gatk.refdata.rodVariants;
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.utils.BaseUtils;
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.utils.fasta.IndexedFastaSequenceFile;
+
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.IOException;
+
+import net.sf.picard.reference.ReferenceSequence;
+
+
+/**
+ * Created by IntelliJ IDEA.
+ * User: mmelgar
+ * Date: Jul 28, 2009
+ * Time: 3:59:38 PM
+ * To change this template use File | Settings | File Templates.
+ */
+public class VECHomopolymer implements VariantExclusionCriterion {
+
+    private int extent = 5;
+    private float frac = 0.8f;
+    public IndexedFastaSequenceFile refSeq;
+    private String contig;
+    public ReferenceSequence contigSeq;
+
+    private boolean exclude = false;
+
+    public void initialize(String arguments) {
+        if (arguments != null && !arguments.isEmpty()) {
+            String[] argPieces = arguments.split(",");
+            extent = Integer.valueOf(argPieces[0]);
+            frac = Float.valueOf(argPieces[1]);
+        }
+
+        File refFile = new File ("/seq/references/Homo_sapiens_assembly18/v0/Homo_sapiens_assembly18.fasta");
+
+        try {
+            refSeq = new IndexedFastaSequenceFile(refFile);
+        } catch (IOException e) {
+            refSeq = null;
+        }
+    }
+
+    public boolean useZeroQualityReads() { return false; }
+
+    public String getStudyHeader() {
+        return "";
+    }
+
+    public String getStudyInfo() {
+        return "";
+    }
+
+    public void compute(char ref, LocusContext context, rodVariants variant) {
+
+        char[] geno = variant.getBestGenotype().toCharArray();
+        int[] genotype = {-1,-1};
+        for (int h = 0; h < 2; h ++) {
+            genotype[h] = BaseUtils.simpleBaseToBaseIndex(geno[h]);
+        }
+
+        if (contig == null || !context.getContig().equals(contig)) {
+            contig = context.getContig();
+            contigSeq = refSeq.getSequence(contig);
+        }
+
+        String bases = new String(contigSeq.getBases());
+        String prevbases = bases.substring((int) (context.getPosition() - extent - 1), (int) (context.getPosition() - 1));
+        String nextbases = bases.substring((int) (context.getPosition() + 1), (int) (context.getPosition() + extent + 1));
+
+        int[] prevCounts = {0,0,0,0};
+        int[] nextCounts = {0,0,0,0};
+        for (int i = 0; i < extent; i ++) {
+            int prevBaseIndex = BaseUtils.simpleBaseToBaseIndex(prevbases.toCharArray()[i]);
+            int nextBaseIndex = BaseUtils.simpleBaseToBaseIndex(nextbases.toCharArray()[i]);
+            if (prevBaseIndex != -1) {
+                prevCounts[prevBaseIndex] ++;
+            }
+            if (nextBaseIndex != -1) {
+                nextCounts[nextBaseIndex] ++;
+            }
+        }
+
+        int prevMaxBase = 0;
+        int nextMaxBase = 0;
+        int prevMax = prevCounts[0];
+        int nextMax = nextCounts[0];
+        for (int j = 1; j < 4; j ++) {
+            if (prevCounts[j] > prevMax) {
+                prevMax = prevCounts[j];
+                prevMaxBase = j;
+            }
+            if (nextCounts[j] > nextMax) {
+                nextMax = nextCounts[j];
+                nextMaxBase = j;
+            }
+        }
+
+        int[] homopolymer = {-1,-1};
+        if ((float)(prevMax)/(float)(extent) > frac) {homopolymer[0] = prevMaxBase;}
+        if ((float)(nextMax)/(float)(extent) > frac) {homopolymer[1] = nextMaxBase;}
+
+        boolean checkOne = homopolymer[0] == genotype[0] && homopolymer[0] != BaseUtils.simpleBaseToBaseIndex(ref);
+        boolean checkTwo = homopolymer[0] == genotype[1] && homopolymer[0] != BaseUtils.simpleBaseToBaseIndex(ref);
+        boolean checkThree = homopolymer[1] == genotype[0] && homopolymer[1] != BaseUtils.simpleBaseToBaseIndex(ref);
+        boolean checkFour = homopolymer[1] == genotype[1] && homopolymer[1] != BaseUtils.simpleBaseToBaseIndex(ref);
+
+        exclude =  checkOne || checkTwo || checkThree || checkFour;
+    }
+
+    public boolean isExcludable() {
+        return exclude;
+    }
+}
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