A Walnut Creek real estate agent has been convicted of charges that she lured a Peruvian nanny to the East Bay with promises of a better life but instead kept her as an indentured servant for nearly two years.

Mabelle de la Rosa Dann, 46, also known as Mabelle Crabbe, kept the nanny a virtual prisoner, cut her off from Spanish-speaking media and rationed her food, authorities said.

She was found guilty Thursday by a federal jury in Oakland of forced labor and other charges. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken is to sentence her Jan. 13.

"No person should ever be forced to live in a world of fear, isolation and servitude," said John Morton, an assistant secretary for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Dann helped bring Zoraida Pena-Canal, 30, of Peru into the United States on a three-month visitor's visa in July 2006, authorities said. Pena-Canal had worked for Dann's sister and Dann as a housekeeper and nanny in Peru several years earlier, investigators said.

Prosecutors said Dann lured Pena-Canal here with the promise that she would live in a large house with her own bedroom and private bathroom. Dann allegedly said she would pay Pena-Canal $600 a month after deducting the cost of the plane ticket for the first five months.

Instead, Pena-Canal knew almost no world outside Dann's 900-square-foot apartment on Ygnacio Valley Road in the Cypress Creek apartment complex in Walnut Creek, where the two women lived with Dann's three children, Special Agent Jennifer Alderete of Immigration and Customs Enforcement wrote in an affidavit filed in federal court.

Pena-Canal worked seven days a week caring for the children, cleaning the apartment, cooking and washing laundry, Alderete wrote. She was forced to live on the living room floor.

Pena-Canal "appeared unkempt and wore the same clothing each day," Alderete wrote.

Dann never paid the nanny and instead charged her about $15,000 for Dann's expenses in Peru, including her costs for searching for nannies before she hired Pena-Canal, the affidavit said.

Dann took the nanny's visa, passport and Peruvian identification each day with her when she went to work, authorities said.

"Frequently, Dann threatened (Pena-Canal) with deportation by reminding her that she was illegally in the United States and had no rights," Alderete wrote.

Dann allegedly told her nanny, "When you come to the United States, you must suffer," authorities said.

Dann broke Pena-Canal's radio and a television set, telling her that she didn't want her to listen to or view Spanish-speaking programs "because it would put ideas in her head," the affidavit said.

Dann also rationed Pena-Canal's food, weighing her meat and counting out the number of pieces of fruit she could eat, investigators said.

Pena-Canal eventually confided in people at Indian Valley Elementary School, where Dann's twin sons were students. She fled from the apartment April 16, 2008, and witnesses contacted authorities.

In addition to forced labor, Dann was convicted of unlawful use of documents in furtherance of servitude, harboring an illegal alien for the purpose of private financial gain, conspiracy to commit visa fraud and visa fraud.

In July, Pena-Canal sued Dann and her mother, Teresa Vittet de la Rosa, in federal court, claiming that both had kept her as an indentured servant. De la Rosa has not been charged with a crime.

Nancy Harris, an attorney representing Pena-Canal in the suit, said Friday that her client "feels extremely vindicated by this verdict, which bolsters her unflinching belief in this country's justice system."

Harris would not say where Pena-Canal is now, but said she was doing well and "recovering from the trauma of her experience."