diff --git a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/MathUtils.java b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/MathUtils.java
index c14511f7f..7804e0664 100755
--- a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/MathUtils.java
+++ b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/MathUtils.java
@@ -67,7 +67,11 @@ public class MathUtils {
     }
 
     /**
-     * Computes a binomial probability
+     * Computes a binomial probability.  This is computed using the formula
+     *
+     *  B(k; n; p) = [ n! / ( k! (n - k)! ) ] (p^k)( (1-p)^k )
+     *
+     * where n is the number of trials, k is the number of successes, and p is the probability of success
      *
      * @param k  number of successes
      * @param n  number of Bernoulli trials
@@ -75,7 +79,42 @@ public class MathUtils {
      *
      * @return   the binomial probability of the specified configuration.  Computes values down to about 1e-237.
      */
-    public static double binomialProbability(long k, long n, double p) {
+    public static double binomialProbability(int k, int n, double p) {
         return Arithmetic.binomial(n, k)*Math.pow(p, k)*Math.pow(1.0 - p, n - k);
+        //return (new cern.jet.random.Binomial(n, p, cern.jet.random.engine.RandomEngine.makeDefault())).pdf(k);
     }
+
+    /**
+     * Computes a multinomial probability.  This is computed using the formula
+     *
+     *   M(x1,x2,...,xk; n; p1,p2,...,pk) = [ n! / (x1! x2! ... xk!) ] (p1^x1)(p2^x2)(...)(pk^xk)
+     *
+     * where xi represents the number of times outcome i was observed, n is the number of total observations, and
+     * pi represents the probability of the i-th outcome to occur.  In this implementation, the value of n is
+     * inferred as the sum over i of xi;
+     *
+     * @param x  an int[] of counts, where each element represents the number of times a certain outcome was observed
+     * @param p  a double[] of probabilities, where each element represents the probability a given outcome can occur
+     * @return   the multinomial probability of the specified configuration.
+     */
+    public static double multinomialProbability(int[] x, double[] p) {
+        int n = 0;
+        for ( int obsCount : x ) { n += obsCount; }
+        double nfact = Arithmetic.factorial(n);
+
+        double obsfact = 1.0, probs = 1.0, totalprob = 0.0;
+        for (int obsCountsIndex = 0; obsCountsIndex < x.length; obsCountsIndex++) {
+            double ofact = Arithmetic.factorial(x[obsCountsIndex]);
+            obsfact *= ofact;
+            probs *= Math.pow(p[obsCountsIndex], x[obsCountsIndex]);
+
+            totalprob += p[obsCountsIndex];
+        }
+
+        assert(MathUtils.compareDoubles(totalprob, 1.0, 0.01) == 0);
+
+        return (nfact/obsfact)*probs;
+    }
+
+
 }