None of the witnesses involved said that Lewis had any physical part of the altercation. If anything, he was trying to break it up.
The things that are known is that a group approached his group and one of the aggressors hit one of his group over a the head with a champagne bottle. Somebody started shooting and he told everybody to get in the limo and get the hell out of there. After that the only thing he did was to tell everybody there not to say anything to police until they talked to a lawyer. The other two involved in the fight (who actually did the fighting/stabbing) were both acquitted. The general consensus is that Lewis made a mistake in taking a plea deal, but an understandable mistake when they were trying to charge him with murder and put him in jail for life.
Edit: And yes, I realize he made a false statement to police. That was certainly a mistake on his part. A poor judgement choice trying to help friends. I am a super harsh critic of athletes and the way they behave these days... but, as stated, the evidence, the witnesses and the jury seem to agree that Lewis and his group were approached and confronted by a larger group of aggressors who started the fight by clubbing somebody over the head with a champagne bottle and then we jumping the other defendant at least 2 on 1. Those who did the stabbing were acquitted.
Friend of mine had to shadow Ray at a Motorola conference. Big plus, guy now is a class act. He ended up with a ton of signed memorabilia from Ray. Very intense football player.