diff --git a/public/scala/qscript/org/broadinstitute/sting/queue/qscripts/DataProcessingPipeline.scala b/public/scala/qscript/org/broadinstitute/sting/queue/qscripts/DataProcessingPipeline.scala
index d1e734cbb..116d16f35 100755
--- a/public/scala/qscript/org/broadinstitute/sting/queue/qscripts/DataProcessingPipeline.scala
+++ b/public/scala/qscript/org/broadinstitute/sting/queue/qscripts/DataProcessingPipeline.scala
@@ -305,7 +305,7 @@ class DataProcessingPipeline extends QScript {
     this.out = outIntervals
     this.mismatchFraction = 0.0
     this.rodBind :+= RodBind("dbsnp", "VCF", dbSNP)
-    if (!indels.isEmpty)
+    if (indels != null)
       this.rodBind :+= RodBind("indels", "VCF", indels)
     this.scatterCount = nContigs
     this.analysisName = queueLogDir + outIntervals + ".target"
@@ -317,7 +317,7 @@ class DataProcessingPipeline extends QScript {
     this.targetIntervals = tIntervals
     this.out = outBam
     this.rodBind :+= RodBind("dbsnp", "VCF", dbSNP)
-    if (!qscript.indels.isEmpty)
+    if (qscript.indels != null)
       this.rodBind :+= RodBind("indels", "VCF", qscript.indels)
     this.consensusDeterminationModel =  consensusDeterminationModel
     this.compress = 0