[4] After receiving his Ph.D. in 1980, Aquino worked as an associate professor at Golden Gate University until 1986, while continuing to serve in the U.S. Army as an active-duty reserve officer at the Presidio of San Francisco.

In 1981, Aquino was a reserve attaché at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and a year later he was a student at the Foreign Service Institute, sponsored by the Department of State.

By 1971, Aquino had been appointed Magister Caverns of the IV degree within the church hierarchy, was the editor of the publication The Cloven Hoof and sat on the governing council of the nine.

Aquino produced a religious text, The Book of Coming Forth by Night, which he claimed was revealed to him by Set in a process of automatic writing.

In 1975, the Temple of Set was registered as a non-profit church in California and received state and federal recognition and tax exemption that same year.

At least 58 out of 100 children who had attended the daycare center showed physical and mental signs of sexual abuse, leading to a lawsuit by the parents for $60 million in damages.

[9] John DeCamp, a Republican politician and former member of the Nebraska Legislature, linked Aquino to the Franklin child prostitution ring allegations.

"The Aquinos," Horowitz wrote, "unsuccessfully attempted legal action against the girl's chaplain father and an Army psychiatrist who stoked the false claims.