A Riverside judge has ordered a Los Angeles parolee to face trial on felony charges after authorities accused him of exploiting a runaway teenager in a prostitution operation. The ruling came Tuesday, more than a year after Riverside police began investigating two girls who had fled a group home.
Michael Jay Johnson, 29, was ordered to stand trial on charges including human trafficking, pimping, being a felon in possession of a firearm and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, according to MyNewsLA’s court report. Riverside County Superior Court Judge Timothy Hollenhorst dismissed a separate count alleging lewd acts involving a child under 14.
The case grew out of a May 2025 investigation involving two teenage girls who had run away from a Riverside group home. The Riverside Police Department said detectives learned the girls may have been victims of human trafficking and later located and returned them to the group home.
One of the teenagers was allegedly coerced into working for Johnson and his co-defendant, Bonnie Edney Fingerson, in an on-call commercial sex operation, police said. Fingerson, 24, of Santa Clara, is free on an $85,000 bond and is scheduled for her own preliminary hearing on September 8, while Johnson remains held at the Robert Presley Jail on $200,000 bail, MyNewsLA reported.
Johnson was arrested July 29, 2025, after investigators served a search warrant at his Los Angeles residence, the police department said. Officers recovered a loaded handgun during the search, and police said Johnson was already on parole for a prior pimping-a-minor case; Fingerson had been arrested three days earlier in Santa Clara County.
Riverside’s Runaway Reports Underscore The Risk
The case lands against a troubling local backdrop. The California DOJ’s 2025 report recorded 5,328 runaway entries in Riverside County among 5,373 total missing-person entries, though the data does not show how many involved trafficking or other exploitation.
State officials have continued to focus on missing and vulnerable children in the county. In March, the governor’s office said Operation Safe Return located 37 missing children in Riverside County and resulted in seven arrests, according to California officials.
What Tuesday’s Ruling Means For The Case
Johnson’s ruling moves his case toward trial but does not establish guilt; the remaining charges are allegations, and he is presumed innocent unless convicted. Fingerson’s September preliminary hearing will determine whether prosecutors present enough evidence for her case to proceed, while no new court date had immediately been set for Johnson.
