NASHUA, N.H., Apr. 20 — Linda Christian, a former follower of Charles Manson, and 11 other persons face a rioting charge after an incident with firefighters who were trying to douse a bonfire the group started Sunday night in a field in Litchfield.

Mrs Christian, who changed her name from Linda Kasabian in an attempt to escape publicity after serving as the key witness in the Manson murder trial, was released on $1,100 bail after being arraigned Monday in Nashua District Court.

She pleaded innocent to charges of rioting, interfering with fire apparatus and resisting arrest.

Police said Mrs. Christian, who lives in Mt. Vernon about 13 miles north of here, was among more than a dozen persons who started a bonfire without a permit in a Litchfield field Sunday night.

“Apparently there was a party and the party had been going on for some time,” Litchfield Police Chief David Campbell said. He said the party goers were drinking beer and had threatened firefighters who had sought to put out the bonfire.

The field is about 120 yards from a residential area comprised of $50,000 homes. The property was being leased by Carl Peterson Jr., one of those arrested, police said.

When firefighters tried to move in to douse the flames, a number of the persons at the gathering turned a firehose on them, Campbell said.

The firefighters returned with a state police escort and an altercation ensued. Twelve persons, all between the ages of 18 and 31, were arrested and charged with rioting and interfering with fire apparatus, both felonies, and various misdemeanors.

All 12 arrested pleaded innocent and were released on bail. A probable cause hearing was scheduled for May 6.

Mrs. Christian, a member of Charles Manson’s “family”, was charged in 1969 with seven counts of murder in connection with what became known as the Tate-LaBianca murders in California.

After being granted immunity, she became the key prosecution witness at the trial in which Manson was found guilty.

After being freed, she returned to New Hampshire, where her mother lives, and in recent years has lived with a number of other people in a farm house in Mont Vernon about 10 miles from Litchfield.

In 1972 she and her then husband, Robert Kasabian, changed their surnames to Christian in an effort to avoid publicity. They were divorced two years ago.

Avoiding publicity, Mrs. Christian has refused interviews and has on occasions cursed violently at reporters.

“I’ve only laid eyes on her once,” the Boston Globe quoted Mt. Vernon Police Chief Oswald B. Williams as saying in an article printed last month.

“That’s when she gave me hell for telling someone where she lived. Never had any other business with her.”