diff --git a/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/HighlightedMatchesSource.java b/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/HighlightedMatchesSource.java
index 1afd097526..d263c35526 100644
--- a/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/HighlightedMatchesSource.java
+++ b/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/HighlightedMatchesSource.java
@@ -18,6 +18,8 @@
  */
 package org.sleuthkit.autopsy.keywordsearch;
 
+import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
+import java.net.URLEncoder;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.logging.Level;
 import java.util.logging.Logger;
@@ -57,7 +59,9 @@ class HighlightedMatchesSource implements MarkupSource {
     public String getMarkup() {
 
         SolrQuery q = new SolrQuery();
-        q.setQuery(solrQuery);
+        final String queryEscaped = KeywordSearchUtil.escapeLuceneQuery(solrQuery);
+        
+        q.setQuery(queryEscaped);
         q.addFilterQuery("id:" + content.getId());
         q.addHighlightField("content");
         q.setHighlightSimplePre(HIGHLIGHT_PRE);
diff --git a/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/KeywordSearchUtil.java b/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/KeywordSearchUtil.java
index b53dedbf02..0ce8f2fadc 100644
--- a/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/KeywordSearchUtil.java
+++ b/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/KeywordSearchUtil.java
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 package org.sleuthkit.autopsy.keywordsearch;
 
+import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
+import java.net.URLEncoder;
 import java.util.logging.Level;
 import java.util.logging.Logger;
 import org.sleuthkit.datamodel.Directory;
@@ -32,4 +34,16 @@ public class KeywordSearchUtil {
         }
         return dirName;
     }
+
+    public static String escapeLuceneQuery(String query) {
+        String queryEscaped = null;
+        try {
+            queryEscaped = URLEncoder.encode(query, "UTF-8"); 
+        }
+        catch (UnsupportedEncodingException ex) {
+            logger.log(Level.SEVERE, "Error escaping URL query, should not happen.", ex);
+            queryEscaped = query;
+        }
+        return queryEscaped;
+    }
 }
diff --git a/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/LuceneQuery.java b/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/LuceneQuery.java
index 58f46ded52..b3af7aa7cc 100644
--- a/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/LuceneQuery.java
+++ b/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/LuceneQuery.java
@@ -64,14 +64,8 @@ public class LuceneQuery implements KeywordSearchQuery {
         Server.Core solrCore = KeywordSearch.getServer().getCore();
 
         SolrQuery q = new SolrQuery();
-        String queryEscaped = null;;
-        try {
-            queryEscaped = URLEncoder.encode(query, "UTF-8"); 
-        }
-        catch (UnsupportedEncodingException ex) {
-            logger.log(Level.SEVERE, "Error escaping URL query, should not happen.", ex);
-            queryEscaped = query;
-        }
+        
+        final String queryEscaped = KeywordSearchUtil.escapeLuceneQuery(query);
         q.setQuery(queryEscaped);
         q.setRows(ROWS_PER_FETCH);
         q.setFields("id");