[1] A resident of the Denver Harbor area of Houston, Reyes, whose father was a laborer, was a member of a family of ten people.

[5] Representing District 89 as a member of the Democratic Party of the United States, he won re-election three times.

[7] He was forced into a runoff with State Senator Gene Green (with whom he had served in the Texas House), which he lost by only 180 votes out of 31,508 cast.

In May 1991 a grand jury from Harris County indicted Reyes for felony charges, including illegally accepting corporate campaign contributions (taking $51,000 United States dollars to influence votes for a project for a convention center hotel), not using the proper authority while ordering demolition of structures accused of being "crack houses," and stealing a magnolia tree.

[2][4] In October 1995 undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents gave Reyes a briefcase with cash in exchange for his engineering of votes so that a city contract would be awarded for a convention center hotel.

Reyes, along with other inmates, submitted a petition to outgoing President of the United States Bill Clinton asking for a pardon.

Reyes lives in Spring Branch with his wife, Rosalie Brockman; she was his longtime girlfriend before they married in 2008.

[1] In 1999 Tim Fleck of the Houston Press ranked Reyes as the "Best and Worst Councilman at the Same Time."

Fleck explained that while Reyes had been convicted of corrupt acts, he had also made political contributions to the city.

Fleck added that Reyes, who falsely said that he received the Purple Heart, "had the worst midlife crisis in Houston political history."