 The court's opinion was written by Justice Abe Fortas, a noted proponent of children's rights.On June 8, 1964, the sheriff of Gila County, Arizona, took 15-year-old Gerald Gault into custody, without notifying Gault's parents after a neighbor, Ora Cook, complained of receiving an inappropriate and offensive telephone call.After returning home from work that evening to find her son missing, Gault's mother eventually located him at the county jail, but was not permitted to take him home.