IText

I'm having trouble trapping this 500 Error:

ExceptionConverter: java.io.IOException: The document has no pages.
	at com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfPages.writePageTree(Unknown Source)
	at com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfWriter.close(Unknown Source)
	at com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfDocument.close(Unknown Source)
	at com.lowagie.text.Document.close(Unknown Source)
	at edu.asu.vpia.webapp.PDFServlet.generatePDFDocumentBytes(PDFServlet.java:241)
	at edu.asu.vpia.webapp.PDFServlet.doGet(PDFServlet.java:76)
	at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:740)
	at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:853)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:247)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:256)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643)
	at org.apache.catalina.valves.CertificatesValve.invoke(CertificatesValve.java:246)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:641)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.invoke(StandardContext.java:2417)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:180)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643)
	at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorDispatcherValve.invoke(ErrorDispatcherValve.java:171)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:641)
	at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:172)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:641)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:174)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995)
	at org.apache.coyote.tomcat4.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:193)
	at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:781)
	at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.processConnection(Http11Protocol.java:549)
	at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.TcpWorkerThread.runIt(PoolTcpEndpoint.java:589)
	at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run(ThreadPool.java:666)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:534)

It happens when I try to create a PDF with no text. I know that at the point I read in the text file, and I try to throw a ServletException:

            //read from database:
            String report = read( holdFilename );

            if ( report == null || report.equals( "" ) ) {
               log.debug( "generatePDFDocumentBytes: no data!  Need to forward to an error page." );
               throw new ServletException( "No data found in HOLD file" );
               return null;
            }

Unfortunately, that seems to get caught somewhere else and this "ExceptionConverter" comes into play.