A 71-year-old Boise Little League coach and high school counselor has been arrested on four counts of having lewd conduct with a boy under 16.

An Ada County grand jury on Thursday indicted Richard Walden Borton. He was booked into the county jail and posted bond.

Borton said he knows the boy, but he declined to explain how they were acquainted. He said he will plead innocent to the charge, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison for each count.

“This young man has got a fantasy that you can’t believe,” Borton said Friday.

Borton, a retired corporate vice president, is a member of St. Luke’s Regional Medical Center’s Auxiliary board of directors, as a career counselor at Bishop Kelly High School and coached baseball for 21 years.

As a single parent, Borton raised five boys and two long-term foster children.

“It (the allegation) makes my life very difficult,” Borton said. “It makes living very difficult.”