At the end of the week, Mario Manago, 33, will be out of the Air Force after 12 years.

But he's not just out of a job -- he's now convicted of a federal crime.

His offense? Being six minutes late to a meeting.

Manago, of Willingboro, was convicted at court-martial March 9 of failing to go to his "appointed place of duty." He was late to a meeting he requested with his commander to discuss his concerns that he was being treated unfairly by his supervisors at the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Burlington County, according to him and his attorney.

"When he said I was guilty, it didn't hit me until after I sat down and thought about it," Manago said earlier this month. He realized he was now convicted of a federal crime "for being six minutes late to a meeting I requested, that was about wrongdoing. Something is wrong."

Even before a judge could decide if he should be punished, Manago found out that he was out of the Air Force anyway because his commander had demoted him. The Air Force has a rule that caps the number of years someone can serve as a senior airman, and because Manago is now over that cap, he will be honorably discharged Saturday.

"I wanted to retire from the Air Force," he said. Now, he needs to find a new job -- one that is open to those with criminal records.

Manago said his career began to unravel in 2016 when he complained to his superiors about problems he perceived with a mission and the way he was treated. He believes that memos he wrote about his concerns so annoyed his superiors that they retaliated against him.

"It was not about punctuality. It was about this commander sending a message to Mario and punishing him for complaining," said Manago's attorney, Douglas Cody of Hammonton.

Manago's whistleblower complaint was dismissed by the base's Inspector General, Cody acknowledged, "but I think a fair observer looking from the outside can see the connection."

A retired Marine judge advocate, Cody said Manago's experience is an unfortunate reality of the military. "If the system or command decides they're against you, with the military being a hyper-regulated organization, it's easy to bring to bear against someone they don't like," he said.

Shaun Eagan, a spokesman for the the joint base, said Manago's claims that he was treated vindictively were fully investigated and found to be unsubstantiated. He confirmed that Manago's conviction was for being six minutes late to the meeting.

"The U.S. Air Force, out of mission necessity, expects discipline from our military members and for airmen to conduct themselves in accordance to Air Force standards and core values," Eagan said in a statement. "Accordingly, it is a commander's responsibility to hold the members of the unit accountable for misconduct."

Cody said that Manago's lateness to the meeting -- due to his inability to abandon his post elsewhere on the base -- is clearly not a serious offense.

"The idea that you can charge someone with a criminal offense for being six minutes late without any aggravating circumstance is very draconian," Cody said. Add to it that the point of the meeting was to discuss alleged mistreatment, and Cody said the charge seems "completely unreasonable."

"It's a reflection of leadership that doesn't care about the people it's supposed to take charge of and take care of," he said.

The end of a career

As he talked about the end of his military career, Manago held his son, Braylen, 2, on his lap, and got up every few minutes to retrieve a crawling nearly 1-year-old, MacKenzie. He and his wife, Lakenia, have four children, and he has two from a previous relationship.

In many ways, he doesn't fit the tough-guy stereotype of a serviceman and instead sees himself as an intellectual. He talked repeatedly of his duty and the importance of "the mission."

"He wants to do things by the book," Cody said of his client's personality. "He treated people fairly and he wanted to be treated fairly himself. And if he thought he wasn't, and that the rules weren't being followed, he was not just going to sit there and take it."

Cody acknowledged that his client had been written up by his superiors before, but said his problems really began when he switched to the 305th Aerial Port Squadron in February of 2016. He started at the base in 2011 after serving in Japan.

The attorney said that almost every time Manago wrote a memo about an issue he was having with others, he was subsequently written up for some offense he denied. Once, it was for how he operated a forklift.

He got a meeting with his commander, Lt. Col. Eric B. Quidley, to discuss his concerns that he was being targeted. But that morning, he was told he couldn't leave his post on the base because things were too busy. He called to reschedule the meeting, but was told he could not.

"Leaving to go to a personal meeting I requested would have been dereliction of duty," Manago said, so he stayed to finish the task.

Manago said that when he got to the meeting, Quidley told him he was "not impressed" with him, mocked his memos and made him read aloud from them.

Eagan said no comment was available from Quidley for this story.

Not long after the meeting, Manago was informed that he was going to be charged for being late to the meeting. He said he declined non-judicial punishment and opted for court-martial because the former would give his commander the ability to demote him.

Three more charges were then filed against him, Manago said, but as the Air Force confirmed, he was found not guilty of all but the single charge regarding the meeting.

Before the special court-martial in March, Manago learned he was demoted and so would be out of the Air Force.

Cody said that to protect the rights of the accused, misconduct should be handled through judicial channels, not through administrative demotion. But Eagan said it is an acceptable way to deal with misconduct.

"It is not a punitive action, it is an administrative action that a commander uses to ensure a service member's grade reflects behavior," he said.

Manago's appeal of his demotion is ongoing. His request for clemency regarding his conviction was not granted.

Cody said Manago's superiors testified that he was a dedicated airman, so they should have seen his potential and worked with him.

"Instead, they took the most draconian and Machiavellian methods to destroy this kid," he said.

Manago doesn't think his race played a big part, but he noted the results of a study released last week by the nonprofit Protect Our Defenders that said black people serving in the Air Force are 71 percent more likely to be face military charges.

While washing dishes at their home, his wife said the ordeal has "taken a toll" on the family, both emotionally and financially.

"He works hard. He deploys. At that point he was working 12 hours a day. He wouldn't leave until everything was done," she said. "You put that in and they can't even have the decency to give you the benefit of the doubt?"

They're hoping that potential employers will give him the benefit of the doubt -- and a chance to explain -- when he has to check the "Have you been convicted of a crime?" box on a job application.

"It's going to be weird, trying to explain it," he said. "They might think I'm joking."

(This story was corrected from an earlier version. While Manago was convicted of a federal crime, the military does not make a distinction between felonies and misdemeanors.)

Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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