Hey Foxx
Maybe, before you speak to your friend, you and I can hash this out here without your friend around and that way, you can get a better feel for what you should do. So, let's just pretend I'm your friend in this situation -- we're just pretending, okay?
True or not, ask yourself:
"Do I owe this person any explanation at all"?
"Is my friend at any disadvantage by me not telling them what's going on in my life?"
Let's just say for the sake of argument you, just like Joseph, were falsely accused of having harmed a female and now you're walking around with this thing hanging over your head. You know the truth and the alleged "victim" knows the truth, but you have all this hate coming at you from people who don't know you or the "victim" at all -- all you have is a stamp that says "Guilty!" whether it's true or not.
So now you have befriended this person who knows nothing of your guilt or innocence. All they know is, they like you a lot and they want to truly be your friend.
Now let's say that they've invited you to come to stay with them in their home for a length of time and little by little people start coming up to your friend and saying, hey did you know that your friend has this thing in his past and it doesn't look too good? (Your friend might even fall victim to someone's hate crimes.)
Could you handle having harm and hate come upon your friend when they for sure are innocent? Would you be okay with that? Even if you didn't want that to happen? Do you think it would be fair of you to not say anything at all and just let your friend discover these things on their own?
I wonder what your friend will think then? Will they thank you for having hid the truth from them and having unwarranted hate come upon them?
And if the friend was angry and upset with you for having hid the truth, only to have something like that come upon them, would their anger over the situation fall under the category of "hate!" and "judging!" in your eyes?
I can't tell you what to do, but if the shoe was on my foot, and I was planning on moving in with my friend, visiting for any length of time, or becoming intimately involved with them and their friends, then I would say something just to give my friend, the one that I care about, a fair edge/advantage so they aren't caught off guard by the hate and judgment of others. That way, they can say, Hey man, I love you and all but I've got enough drama in my life, maybe we can work something else out?
I'm the type that would believe my friend, if they truly were my friend (i.e. exercised a habit of being truthful and upfront with from the beginning). But if I feel my trust has been broken and someone's trying to pull the wool over my eyes... no telling what I would do. But that's me. Nobody's perfect.
God bless. All the best to you, my friend.