You are clearly ignorant of airline operating procedures, the operation of the Q400 in particular, and the legal system.

1. Procedures are not "stated in the Ops Specs" and the relevant procedures for the operation of the DHC-8 Q400 would, in this case, be the Colgan General Operations Manual and the Colgan Bombardier DHC-8 Q400 Flight Manual (or whatever Colgan's title is for the aircraft operating manual).

2. You state that "there are and were KNOWN FREQUENT issues,with, warning lights going on ...which can be legally interpreted negatively..." I'm not really sure what this means, but the point is, you don't either. There have been no reports that I am aware of that there were "warning lights [sic] going on..." aboard the CO3407 aircraft, but in any event, the annunciator lights and/or CAS (Crew Alerting System) messages on the Q400 are not designed to "interpreted" legally, negatively, or otherwise. The aircraft's warning and caution lights (if indeed that's what you were referring to) are designed to present a clear and unambiguous statement of condition of the particular component or system. I could go on about the design philosophy and functionality of these systems, but I won't bother--you obviously don't fly the airplane and wouldn't be likely to understand how the systems work.

3. It is quite unlikely that the "plaintiffs" will assert any claim or complaint predicated upon the use of the autopilot unless it ensues that the autopilot use played some causative role in the accident. At this point, there is no indication that the autopilot use played any role other than possibly enabling the decay of airspeed to a critical point where the stickshaker was activated. Again, there is no prohibition against "flight into known icing" using the autopilot. In fact the aircraft is certificated for flight into known icing, based upon an assumption that the autopilot will be used the majority of the time while in known icing.

You might try acquiring some information and some facts about the subject you're writing about, before holding forth about commercial aircraft and pilot procedures--not to mention the law and the legal system--on a professional pilot's forum.