GAE Datastore search not working on local development instance (Java) - google-app-engine

Question

My local instance of Java Google App Engine seems to index search documents just fine, but started throwing an exception when running a search. Code snippet and exception included. TIA!
Code for searching :
QueryOptions options = QueryOptions.newBuilder()
.setLimit(500)
.build();
String queryString = searchStr;
Query query = Query.newBuilder().setOptions(options).build(queryString);
IndexSpec indexSpec = IndexSpec.newBuilder().setName(projectName + "Search").build();
Index index = SearchServiceFactory.getSearchService().getIndex(indexSpec);
Results<ScoredDocument> results = null;
try {
results = index.search(query);
} catch (SearchException e) {
}
Exception:
java.lang.NullPointerException at
com.google.appengine.repackaged.com.google.appengine.api.search.SearchServicePb$ListDocumentsResponse$Builder.addDocument(SearchServicePb.java:13298)
at
com.google.appengine.api.search.dev.LocalSearchService.listDocumentsForApp(LocalSearchService.java:527)
at
com.google.appengine.api.search.dev.LocalSearchService.getFieldTypes(LocalSearchService.java:710)
at
com.google.appengine.api.search.dev.LocalSearchService.searchForApp(LocalSearchService.java:564)
at
com.google.appengine.api.search.dev.LocalSearchService.search(LocalSearchService.java:547)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at
sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
at
sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:606) at
com.google.appengine.tools.development.ApiProxyLocalImpl$AsyncApiCall.callInternal(ApiProxyLocalImpl.java:525)
at
com.google.appengine.tools.development.ApiProxyLocalImpl$AsyncApiCall.call(ApiProxyLocalImpl.java:479)
at
com.google.appengine.tools.development.ApiProxyLocalImpl$AsyncApiCall.call(ApiProxyLocalImpl.java:456)
at
java.util.concurrent.Executors$PrivilegedCallable$1.run(Executors.java:493)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method) at
java.util.concurrent.Executors$PrivilegedCallable.call(Executors.java:490)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:262) at
java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1145)
at
java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:615)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:744)