Gov. John Hickenlooper is expected to sign a bill Tuesday afternoon that would make it easier to prosecute related child sex assault cases in one trial, in one courtroom.

House Bill 1109 allows prosecutors to consolidate a pattern of sex assaults alleged over several jurisdictions to allow one district attorney to prosecute the cases as a pattern. Doing so would spare anguish to victims and increase the chances of tougher punishment.

The bill was sponsored in the House by Terri Carver, R-Colorado Springs, and Jessie Danielson, D-Wheat Ridge. The Senate sponsors were former Weld County Sheriff John Cooke, R-Greeley, and nationally known crime-victims’ advocate Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora.

The bill passed the House and Senate unanimously.

“Consolidating child sexual assault charges from multiple jurisdictions into one trial prevents the victims from reliving their trauma through multiple trials, and streamlines the process of bringing habitual child sex offenders to justice,” Carver said in a statement.

“I was pleased to see such strong support from my colleagues and from the victim advocacy groups for this legislation, and know it will reduce the trauma child victims of sexual assault experience during their perpetrator’s trial.”

Child sex assault is a fourth-degree felony, A pattern becomes a third-degree offense under the new law. A third-degree felony has prison time up to 12 years and fines up to $750,000. A fourth-degree felony has a maximum sentence of six years in prison and  $500,000 in fines.

Before the bill’s first vote before the House Judiciary Committee on Feb. 28, Danielson told lawmakers to think of the victims the bill is meant to help.

“Let’s remember what we’re trying to accomplish here, which is to alleviate the tremendous burden on the victims of this terrible crime,” she said. “We’re talking about child victims of child sex assaults.”

Rep. Joe Salazar, D-Thornton, a candidate fro attorney general, tried in vain to amend the bill to limit what he saw as a broad expansion of prosecutors’ powers “to basically do whatever they want.”

He still voted for the bill because it could help young victims, however.

“Time will tell if this bill is going to be abused by district attorneys offices,” he said. “Or time will tell if it proves to benefit victims, child victims”